After a few hours of playing my Legacy Challenge family, I’m only a tiny bit closer to that all-important 6th generation! Going for the “Have 10 Kids” want really set me back, because I can’t have Patrick, my 5th gen heir, get married until we move some people out of the house.
My plan is to move Owen (5G adult) out with Dubrey (5G teen), Heath (5G child) and possibly Kay (5G teen), but I want them to move into Uncle Liam’s (now Aunt Maire’s) so I can continue to play them (confused yet?). This means I have to build Owen’s relationship up with someone from Aunt Maire’s, and it is taking a long, long time.
“Are we buds yet? Come on! Do I have to bribe you or something?”
Since Owen was already acquainted with his uncle Aidan, I worked on building their relationship high enough that I can switch over to Aunt Maire’s and have Aidan ask Owen to move in. I got their Daily relationship score to 100, but their Lifetime score is hovering around the teens, which I don’t think will be enough. Maybe I’ll play Aunt Maire’s house tonight and try it out.
In the meantime, the rest of the Shanleys are just going about their business. I have tried to lay off the micromanaging a little bit, since it was getting a little ridiculous. I don’t really need to pause every 30 seconds to make sure everyone is doing what they’re supposed to be doing, right? So I’m learning to just sit back and cycle through everyone, intervening only when a Need gets too low, or a Want must be fulfilled (trying to keep everyone in green, at least). Sometimes I intervene merely for my own amusement, as when I had Fiona and Dubrey run the obstacle course.
“ARRGH! I mean…ARRRR, matey! Mom always wins!”
When the baby of the family, little Stefaan, grew into a toddler, I was surprised to see that his hair was blond, just like his father’s. It’s weird because his eyebrows looked dark to me when he was a baby. In all four generations, only Zuzu and Stefaan have diverged from the usual brown hair. I’m in love with that kid just because he’s unique among his siblings. I’d make him the heir if I weren’t so impatient to get to 6th gen.
“Smile for the camera, son!”
His personality is pretty good, too, although I don’t have the stats handy. The important thing is that it’s different from Patrick’s. OK, no more complaining about my clone children, I promise!
Robi eventually transitioned to elder. Not long after that, his son Dubrey was scheduled to become a teenager. I selected “Grow Up” for Dubrey, and of course everyone stopped what they were doing to go and watch his transition. Well, Robi had just hopped out of the shower and hadn’t gotten dressed yet, so he gleefully walked towards the kitchen stark naked. Needless to say, he frightened everyone, including poor townie Brittany Parker.
“What’s going on? Why is everyone screaming?”
I stopped him at the armoire in the foyer and made him get dressed, for propriety’s sake. Dubrey become a teen without further incident. Since he looked exactly like his brothers Owen and Patrick had as teens, I gave him dreads and slightly different eyebrows. He’s another dratted Popularity Sim, so he’s going to be my cool cat. He and Zuzu and Kay can all throw parties together or something.
“Forget this clone business. I’m going to be the coolest Shanley ever!”
I had Robi and Fiona work on teaching Stefaan how to walk, talk, and use the potty. It’s kind of weird to have an elder teaching his toddler son how to walk. At least it is for me. Robi is something like 50 days older than Stefaan. It hurts him just to stand up!
“Hold on, my boy…Dad’s got a hitch in his giddy-up.”
Fiona’s birthday finally rolled around — it was time for her to become an elder! Since she is my 4th gen heir and had to put up with all of those pregnancies, I decided to hold a special birthday party for her. I put a table out in the reception area in front of the family chapel and had Robi grill some ribs. I also made everyone sit at the table so I could take a “gathering shot” (an idea I borrowed from Janice). Taryn, Eleanor, Callum, and Aidan were also invited, but they hadn’t arrived yet.
“Have I ever told you guys about the time I broke into Uncle Liam’s safe?”
From left to right we have Heath, Dubrey, Kay, Patrick, and Owen. Fiona is facing them all.
Here’s Robi serving the ribs.
“Hey Dad, what’s this stuff that looks like Cream-of-Wheat and carrots?”
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Hi Jen, i love Dubrey’s hair do. That’s coooolll!. Where did you come up with the hairdo? I’m glad finally Fiona get to enjoy her elder years. No more babies for her huh?! Well I hope you are able to move your teens into Aunt Marie’s house and get started on G6. I’m also interested to see how Stefaan will look as an adult. Can’t wait to read your next update.
Hi Mary – That hairdo actually comes with the game. I’ve just never used it before. It doesn’t look too bad on him, though, eh? Heehee.
Hi Jen, I found your site a few days ago and so I’ve been reading through all the posts. I love the Shanley family. I kept laughing as I was reading this entry. I love your posts and writing style and I can’t wait to see more. And I love Dubrey’s hair!
Aww, stefaan is gorgeous! And well done for keeping up with 10 kids just in one generartion – i get exhausted enough with just the one child!
I loved the update Jen! One question: On the last picture of Stefaan, how did you get so close to his face? On my pictures, I can’t ever get that close to the kids, or even close to the ground. Thanks!
I don’t see how you can tell all of the Shanley kids apart…they all look alike to me. LOL! Too funny. They are cute though.
I really enjoyed this update, Jen! I loved how you put the little captions on each picture. They all cracked me up. I love how Aidan fell asleep in Robi’s bed. I’ve never had that happen before. Maybe it was because he had lived in the Shanley Manor? Who knows…Lol. Well I can’t wait to read your next update. The blogs are keeping me from going too crazy without being able to play the Sims. In a way, I can’t wait to get home!! But I enjoy it here. Great update!
awww, this was such a heartwarming update. Fiona’s finally an elder. i’ll actually be sad to see her go… i mean, she popped out 8 kids and adopted 2 more! love the captions you provided with each picture. so very sweet. i don’t know why, but i got a tear in my eye just reading this Shanley edition. i’m a sucker for successes! and Stefaan was a cutie patootie as a toddler.
Sweet! I tell ya, reading all the blogs with the babies/children, makes me want at least one in a household. Hmm – maybe the next one. I’ve never seen a Sim walk out of the bathroom naked or any other room naked??
All of the above. LOL. Absolutely amazing! I don’t know how you do it. hehe. And I noticed that you use the baby rugs from (I think!) Mermaid Cove? They’re pretty cool. I have them too, hehe. And I think you must have just pressd ‘tab’ and the ‘+’ and ‘=’ keys to get closer to their faces, right? That’s what I do at least. Well, another great update! I love your blog. Sincerely, Dustyn.
Jen, I love your little quotes, they’re so cute! Fiona looks almost exactly the same as she did when she was an adult, I guess that’s a good thing…
Wow, Stefaan looks really different! Yay for the non-cloned Sim! I wonder what he’ll look like as a teen also. Hopefully better looking than MY sims…
Another awesome update Jen. The newest Shanley was such a cute toddler. That picture with him and his dad was the cutest. Can’t wait to see what’s happening at Uncle Liams (I think it will always be Uncle Liam’s even though he’s passed).
One well earned birthday party for Fiona! lol… I’m honoured that you used my “dinner table photo” idea :p and even gave me credit. ahaha. anyway, it’s a cool idea that you’re using (funny) captions now^^
I’ve got a Question though, did Aidan’s a visitor at the Shanley Manor right? so how did he automatically go to sleep there? It’s never happened to me before. the only way a visitor can sleep is when you get a sim living on the lot to woohoo with the visitor…
He’s cute, but I like the original much better ;-)
It’s a great update Jen, and knowing how much time it takes me to get the right camera angles, it must take you a long time as well to take the pictures and make this blog. Thank you so much for investing time in my daily habbit!!
funny update jen! I love your family and you are doing a great job with the photos!
this is a bit random, but I’ve been reading about your legacy challenge family since day one, and I just love to :P I come here alll the time. Since I don’t own ts2 (mac :( ), this is kind of compensation XD
So yeah. Thanks a lot for keeping this up and everything :)
Stefaan is so cute! Your family is looking really really good :)
Thanks to everyone for the nice comments. To answer a couple of questions —
Kristina – To take that last picture of Stefaan I went into Cameraman mode by hitting the Tab key. Once in that mode, you can use the “Q” key to move the camera downward and the “E” key to move it up. You can control the tilt of the camera by moving the mouse. “A” and “D” will pan left and right respectively, and “Z” and “X” will zoom in and out. (I believe you can also use the arrow keys and ‘+’ and ‘=’ as Dustyn mentioned.) It can be tricky sometimes but just play around with it until you get what you want. It’s really handy!
Janice – You asked how Aidan could go to sleep at Shanley Manor even though he was just a visitor. I think it’s because he used to live there, as Jessica suggested. Either that or he had a sufficiently high relationship with everyone in the house and/or he was really really exhausted. I’m not sure. :-)
By the way, I didn’t play enough over the weekend to justify an update today, but I’m hoping to play tonight. *crosses fingers!*
Great story. Just one request—-Please update! :-). Sorry just haven’t seen an update in 3 days and I’m addicted.