Although, I've been thinking of moving this household, more about that below.
Abraham and Sylvia works quite well as a couple. I was a bit worried for Abraham being a Loner, would he coop with such a big family?
I think both his main interests are balancing this pretty well for him, he can be all alone when painting and when doing sports. Sylvia deals very well with the kids, although she probably would like to spend more time with her garden plants.
Now that both Rudolph and Sammy started school, daytime might get less hectic. It took a couple schooldays before mom found time to prepare food sacks for the boys, though. It's strange how packing a sandwich takes as long as preparing a full family dinner.
Abraham is a great dad, often initiating fun stuff with the kids. He just repaired the kitchen sink again, maybe it's time to buy a proper dishwasher?
With older kids, the family focus has moved to the outdoors. This far the garden only contains the basketball hoop and Sylvia's garden. It's time to equip the garden to make sure they all find something to do there.
But Sylvia has begun to explore the community gardens to collect new species for her own garden. In order to build her cooking skill, she should cook more food based on what she harvests. She has no tomato plant, and the only one available was not even full grown, nothing to harvest. So, she took a cutting in order to graft.
There's always spare time for reading to the toddlers. Fiona and Donna have different toddler traits, but I can't say I notice a significant difference in their behavior or needs.
Well, now onto what I said about the household moving! I started this challenge in a brand new game. Realizing that I will need to rebuild restaurants and shops etc, made me want to rather move the Clump family into my existing long running world, Gloomville. That's the universe where I ran my previous Sims by Numbers, Gloomville Diaries, and also movie series Life Unlimited and San Myshuno Undercover were recorded there.
So, I did some experimenting and placed the Clump lot in Newcrest, then moved the family in there. It seems they kept all their skills etc. so nothing regarding the challenge was directly affected. If ever doing this moving, now would be a good time before kids begin to make friends and before I build their outdoor units. Sammy's school project was reset and Rudolph's school project vanished from his inventory, but it's not challenge related and I can live with that. Now the Clumps can access all my custom lots and families in Gloomville (aka Willow Creek), Oasis Springs, Newcrest, Magnolia Promenade, San Myshuno and Granite Falls. They will also run into my beloved families, which hopefully might inspire me to play them again once this challenge is done.
The Newcrest quarter is a small residential one with just 4 families and a park that might be given some proper build/functionality later on. The kids will have easy access to two playgrounds within walking range, and the lot has a splendid view to the waters.
Something obviously went wrong though, after the moving Sylvia discovered a trash plant on the side of the house where they rarely wander. And - the skies turned all black even if it was hours until sunset! I wondered if the sky could be related to the plant, but probably no.
Talking about trash, Fiona didn't take long to make a mess on their new pavement. Sylvia stopped her, but neighbors might react negatively to this kind of behavior in a rather nice residential area? The tram was passing, someone might have reacted already...
Finally it's Fiona's birthday! The entire family gathered by their new dining table for some cake.
I didn't expect to manage to serve them all, including a toddler! Only Fiona was done with her cake, but still with her fork in hand. It seems like Parenthood GP makes t easier to enjoy those family meals.
I'm excited to see how everyday life will be hectic in a different way with school kids instead of toddlers. In 5-6 days the twins will reach teenhood, and Donna will start school.
A few words about Fiona, although she got it all wrong for the challenge. She has neither black hair nor green eyes. As a toddler she succeeded more on Motor and Creativity, and therefore she got the Motor aspiration as a child. She might be joining her dad exercising, we'll see.
Sammy has a couple days when he insists on wearing his red bear suit! It's kinda cute, but I hate how he shortly after changed into bear suits of different colors - it ruins any sense of reality. I wish he would stick to just one color. The colors might refer to mood swings, I don't know, but has been ignored by the family this far.
Seems like Donna has mood swings, too! In a few seconds she managed to ruin Sammy's school project, and he must start over - again! Donna has the Silly trait, so maybe I should expect this...
Toddlers climbing stairs is fun to watch :) I don't think any of Donna's siblings ever did this, maybe she is more active than the others after all? She is the main heir, her DNA is perfect, maybe I should pay attention to this...
Sylvia is getting real good in the kitchen! I think she is preparing school food for the kids, not really any need to make this much fuss about cutting a few tomatoes that she didn't even grow herself.
Now that they moved to a permanent location, there was also made small plans for the outdoors. I used ground paint to visualize the five units, they can be seen lined up along the hedge. They look small compared to the available space, but by time the next generations will also want to add other constructions out there. So, I'm saving some ground for them :)
Now there's room for a terrace, and some open lawn for future ballgames. I don't even recall what outdoor activities already exists in my game, it's been too long...
To be continued...
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