Missing Something

The girls stayed until the next morning .

They had organised an apartment in the middle of town and while they had not decided where they wanted to be long-term, they were thinking that a move out of Queenstown might be just what they needed.  

I hugged my girls goodbye, and wished them well. I would miss them, they had been a unique and welcome addition to my little family.

I was pleased that they had organised a photo for me before they left.

–

It was mid-morning before I finally got the chance to think about a problem that had been worrying me ever since the triplets were born. The house was quiet. The children were all at school and Dale was in-town, although he was due back at any moment.  While I was staring at a sheet of paper containing 99 names. The longer I stared the more sure I became that I was missing something. Not someone, something. I was used to suddenly knowing things, when some type of event made a scrap of information relevent somehow I always knew. This time it all felt just out of reach, like I should know but I somehow didn’t.

Grandma had described it to Dale once as being like old memories floating to the surface. That was mostly accurate, but sometimes it was no more of feeling that would point me in the direction that I needed to go. It had started when I eighteen and had caused my sudden breakup with Christopher, not that I had been aware of it at the time.   This time the memory refused to surface.

I definitely had my numbers right. I already knew that if any of my children were not raised in my house that they didn’t count towards my destiny or whatever what I was doing was. The Quin’s had proven that, when I had held the first-born in my arms with no intention of raising them, I had known immediately. I added their names to the side of the sheet but I already knew that they were not what I was missing. It had been the same with Dale’s quads but with the opposite result. As soon as they had been born I had known that were now part of my destiny. I had to admit I hadn’t been sure about that until they had arrived. My grandmother had been the one to tell me that I would need different fathers for the children and I had never thought to question it and I wondered if it was something that she had never questioned either.

I was aware of Dale entering the room but didn’t take my eyes off the page in front of me.

“What’s this?” he asked, laying down beside me.

“Honestly, I’m not sure” I told him. “I’m missing something. Something obvious and it’s driving me crazy.”

“These are all your children?”, he asked,  his hand traced the list of names before finally stopping near the names of his own children.

“Yeah, this is them. All 99” I confirmed, I glanced at the other five names on the page. “Well, 104.” I corrected myself.

“104?”, he queried I realised that was one of the things I hadn’t told him.

“Don’t ask, I might tell you all about it…someday.”

“So what’s bothering you?”

“I don’t know? I mean, I know I’m one short but at the same time it all feels kind of finished” I answered, “Does that make any kind of sense?”

“Not to me?” he replied. “Although, Crux did say something similar when I was talking to him just after you got back”

“He did?” I asked.

“Yeah, before the triplets were even born,” Dale replied. “Not that I understood it. Still don’t. I don’t understand half of the things that kid decides to tell me”

“Guess I’ll just have to go and ask him about that then” I said, starting to stand up.

“Luc, can we forget this for the moment.” Dale stopped me, pushing the paper away from the two of us. “It’s the first time the two of us have had any time alone together for weeks and the kids are going to be coming back through the door in a couple of hours.”

“Toddler’s will do that, especially when there is more than one.” I laughed, laying back down. “It’s nice having them all at school again. You’re right, I’ll track Crux down in the morning and ask him then. I’m having no luck trying to work out what I’m missing by myself”

“Just don’t take anything any further until you are sure okay. Who knows maybe in some weird way you are done?”

“You just want me to yourself for a while”, I teased.

“Yes, he said simply. “I do. Are you okay with that?”

“Yeah, I’m more than okay with that”

—

Typical…”

 

“That’s okay, it will all be quicker to organise by myself….”

Almost

I was happy that Dale was now used to the home births and was no longer rushing me to the hospital every time I went into labour.

This time it was triplets. We welcomed two little girls and one baby boy to our family.

While Dale was thrilled with the triplets, I will admit that I slightly disappointed. I was one short, Ninety-nine children, just one short of my target.

First born was Kiruna, born with the traits Slob and Artistic.

Second was my other baby girl, Mahira. She was born Loving both the Outdoors and the Cold.

and finally Paitar born with the traits Neurotic and Easily Impressed.

Both Dale and I had taken the time to talk to both sets of twins and we hoped that things would now be calmer.

The arrival of the triplets had helped slow down the number of booby traps that were being set up and the boys had stopped conjuring the poisoned apples when we pointed out that the quads were the most likely to eat the fruit and not their intended targets, Eliya and Mika. 

It also helped that the boy’s  war conferences could no longer take place in the the nursery and they struggled to find another place that was as private.

There was still the occasional blow-up but nothing like what had occurred previously.

The boys behaviour did sometimes lapse and on more than one occasion they scared the life out of me.

Sometimes the teens had moments were  – just for one moment – they forgot they were supposed to be in the middle of a feud.

The girls sprite forms were adorable and they often used it to their advantage.

The quads were still good about completing their homework on time, unlike Eliya who just refused to even attempt hers.

When the quads were not taking care of their homework and other chores they could be found hanging out with their imaginary friends. Joslyn refused to share her Ice-cream with Peanut, just hearing that her Imaginary friend had the same name as mine once had,  brought a smile to my face.

She even took the opportunity while everyone was busy to make her self a little snack in the children’s oven.

Tuck enjoyed any activity that took place outside, the sandpit was a favourite.

As was the Spring Racer.

The new triplets were adorable but I admitted that a tiny part of me was still upset that I had missed by 100 Baby Target by just one and as I watched them I wondered if maybe my count was wrong. Somehow I doubted that was the case.

The older kids were once again wonderful with the new babies. Eliya looked after and played with them nearly every day after school.

As did Mika.

Jerid continued to surprise me with his behaviour around his younger siblings, I hoped that it was something that would continue.

Of course we had to get started on toddler training.

“Kiri this is easy, you just need to pay attention” Dale, pleaded with Kiruna.

I glanced over  at the pair, noting the look on my daughter’s face. They had been at it for a while but Kiruna was stubborn and thus far uncooperative.

“I’m sure the other kids were easier to train than this”, Dale grumbled.

“She’s fine”, I replied, lifting Mahira into my arms to celebrate another successful walking attempt.  “She is learning even if she isn’t using her voice yet”

“I think I’ll stick to teaching them to walk from now on” he grumbled. “I’m terrible with the talking”

Dale persisted with teaching Kiruna how to talk and it wasn’t really all that long before the pair were ready to start on walking.

“I think she likes learning to walk more than talking” Dale remarked, before talking to directly to Kiruna. “Didn’t like all that sitting, did you Kiri?

“Walkies?”

“Let’s show them how easy it is to learn to talk, Mahira, okay?”

“—-”

“No?”

Between us, Dale and I finished up the toddler’s training. Paitar, was the last of the triplets to complete his training and unlike the girls seemed to enjoy learning to talk.

It was time for birthdays….again. When I walked downstairs to organise cakes for the triplets I walked into the middle of another of the twins many arguments.

At that point I decided that it was time for the girls to celebrate their Young Adult birthday.

Eliya aged up receiving the Perfectionist trait.

She was followed by her twin Mika who rolled the loser trait. Both Eliya and Mika plan on giving the community Magic Makeovers.

Kiruna was the first of the triplets to have their birthday. She received the Vegetarian trait.

Mahira received the Neat trait.

And Paitar received the Bookworm trait.

–

A/N : I think this is going to be the one time I choose another trait for one of my sims, rather than the random rolls that I usually use. I don’t think the loser trait really suits Mika, she just didn’t like school. 😕 So…any suggestions on which trait I should give Mika for her fifth trait? She currently has Star Quality, Clumsy, Eccentric, Heavy Sleeper and Loser. I have every expansion except WA, so let me know what you think?

With Mika I was also trying to work out who would suit her romantically – I only came up with one answer – so yeah that’s not going to happen. Even though I think they would be perfect for each other if they were not related….

Fairy Tricks and Poisoned Apples

My pregnancy started to show two days after I arrived home.

I wasted no time telling Dale, this time he reacted as if it was the most natural thing in the world for ones fiancée to come home from a trip pregnant with another man’s child. I seriously didn’t know what I had done to deserve him but I am grateful.

Maybe the idea that what I needed to do was nearing his end was making it all a little easier.

His genuine excitement also made me look forward to meeting the new babies that were due to arrive shortly.

We now had ten family members living in the house and while it was probably time for Eliya and Mika to become Young Adults and prepare to move out, I delayed their birthdays. I had been away longer this time than I ever had previously and I wanted to make sure I spent some time with them while they were still here. It is never intentional but keeping up to date with my children who had already moved out is always problematic. There is always too much going on right here at home.

While Dale and I could not see them, the other new family members were starting to make their presence felt. Homework and sleep was being interrupted and bathroom accidents were also starting to occur.

After witnessing a couple of the children talking to themselves, Dale became concerned enough to mention the problem to me. He had become especially attached to the quads, while he was a good father to all of my children they were the only besides his own to call him Dad.

This was because while most of the others did think of him as their father, I had never hidden that they all had another father. With the Quads, Christopher was gone and his ghost was attached to Riverview. Even if they did go to Riverview it was doubtful that they would ever be able to meet him.

After he had spent a little bit of time worrying that all four of the quads were going crazy, I finally got around to assuring him that there was nothing to worry about.

“But their talking to something that isn’t there” he argued.

“Oh honey, just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean their not real”,  I consoled him.

“It doesn’t?”, he asked.

“Werewolves are real” I teased, leaning forward to kiss him on the cheek. “And Vampires, Fairies, Witches, Aliens, Plantsims, Wishing Well Babies and possibly even Mermaids.”

“I know that!”, he replied, unamused.

“Jheran had an Imaginary Friend, don’t you remember?” I told him, “he stopped believing when he was a teen, so his never made the final transition to becoming real but he did have one.”

“I never noticed”, he told me. “How did I miss that?”

“Well it’s easier to miss if it only happens to one of the children at a time” I said. “This time it’s all four. It becomes  much more noticeable when all of them are talking to themselves”

“That makes sense I guess”, Dale said, picking up the gaming controller.

“I had one”, I told him.

“One of what?” he asked, already lost in the game on the screen.

“An imaginary friend. His name was Peanut”, I told him. “Grandma gave me a potion to make him real, right after she told me about what I had to do.”

“Do I really want to hear about this?”, Dale asked.

“He was Rhuarc Jnr’s father.”

Our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the younger children.

One by one they came in taking the controller off their step-father and making first me and then Dale retreat to other areas of the house.

When I got into the house I soon discovered the reason behind their sudden interest in avoiding the main house.

The teens were continuing their disagreement from previous days and even though the boys had started it, the girls were winning….easily.

Being just slightly older their magic was more developed and because the boys had been the ones to pick the fight the girls had no problem using their more advanced magic on their younger brothers.

Both girls had picked a target for their tricks and both of them had practised enough that all of their spells worked as they were supposed to.

In fact, until they had a chance to practise more the only thing the boys were able to do was try to entice their sisters to eat their conjured poisoned apples.

Unsurprisingly, both Eliya and Mika found the gifts suspicious and refused to accept anything given to them by the boys.

The boys ended up changing tactic and started to leave the apples where they hoped the girls would find them. I’d already removed them from around the fairy house several times even though I realised the girls were unlikely to be dumb enough to eat the apples.

There were other more unsuspecting victims about however. I hoped that the Quads didn’t get mixed up in the fighting and pranks currently overtaking the house.

The teens had (so far) been good about keeping the quads separate from their little war and all of them had formed bonds with their youngest siblings.

Josef and Hilde enjoyed watching television together.

Josef also always hung around a little after breakfast to chat with Joslyn.

And told stories to Sari in the gym.

Joslyn and Mika both enjoyed playing on the computer.

And of course both sets of twins were always asked to read the quads bedtime stories.

Jarid surprised me. He was always the first one to agree when someone wanted to hear a bedtime story.

Of course, I was also becoming a lot bigger.

It wasn’t long before the newest babies announced that they were now ready to be born….

Witches vs Fairies

While I had been visiting with Crux; Dale, Eliya and Mika had continued the quads training. It had been abandoned for a while after my Grandmother’s death but continued when I was no longer in the house.

All of the toddlers had learnt at least one skill before I had left and all had nearly finished with their potty training.

By the time I was due to come home all their training had been completed.

Dale admitted later that he had lost control of his condition a couple of times.

I could understand why that had happened. Even under the best of circumstances looking after quads can be stressful and when you added that he had been worrying about me as well, I thought he had done well.

When no one had been in the nursery to stop him, Josef had started to steal candy from the toddlers.

I’m not sure where the candy came from but Josef still managed to steal some.

Little Tuck was horrified that his older brother was evil enough to steal his candy.

—————–

When I had finally arrived home from the campus it had been late and everyone was already in bed asleep. It was a relief to not only be sleeping in my own bed but to have Dale next to me once again. I had no sooner laid down and closed my eyes when Dale had pulled me into his arms.

“Welcome home” he murmured into my hair. “Missed you”

I could tell he had already gone back to sleep. “Missed you too” I whispered back, before giving in to my exhaustion.

In the morning I finally woke up and made my way downstairs.  I was immediately confronted with the chaos that was my family and I loved every minute of it.

“Ready for birthdays”, Dale asked when I entered the kitchen.

“Birthdays?” I asked , shocked. ” I missed so much.”

“Not that much” he assured me.

Mika and Eliya came downstairs holding Sari and Tuck, when they reached me Eliya transferred Tuck to my arms before getting ready to celebrate the babies birthdays.

“Happy Birthday little man” I said to my youngest son.”Are we ready to become a big boy?”

“Yes, Mama” Tuck cooed.

Tuck aged up revealing that while he had received his father Christopher’s colouring, he mostly took after me. He received the Workaholic trait.

Sari soon followed receiving The Good Sense of Humour trait.

After Dale and Eliya retrieved the remaining two quads from the nursery and they too celebrated their birthdays.  Little Hilde received the Perceptive trait and you could already showed that she was going to be a blonde version of me.

The last of the Quads to age was Joslyn.  It was hard to tell under her ghostliness but I think she may be one to look the most like her father. She received the Never Nude trait.

We still had more birthdays to get through with my twins boys ready to become teens.

Jarid aged up receiving the Mean-Spirited Trait. Noooooo! Sorry ignore this…

Josed aged up and received the Workaholic trait.

After everyone had celebrated, Jarid like Rolan before him took the opportunity to exercise his newly received mean-spirit by yelling at his older sister.

I somehow don’t think that he thought it all the way through and even he seemed to be regretting his outburst when he was on the bus surrounded by two very upset and vengeful fairies.

Josef escaped the drama his twin had created by taking his own mode of transportation to school.

With all of our children safely on their way to school, Dale and I took the opportunity to spend some time together without interruption. 

Unfortunately when the kids all came home the older children’s relationships with each other continued to deteriorate rapidly.

It wasn’t long before powers were used and a bad situation became even worse.

Eventually, in an attempt to calm the situation all the kids were asked if they had finished their homework and when only one of the quads was able to say yes, the rest were told to sit down and make sure theirs was done.

Once homework was completed both sets of twins retreated into separate rooms to discuss the days happenings. Jarid and Josef took over the now vacant nursery to plan.

While the girls remained in the kitchen voicing their concerns as to just what their brothers were up to.

And just to add to the chaos that seemed to be overtaking the household,  all four of the quads imaginary friend dolls took their first step to becoming real.

The children had all gone to bed when Dale finally got around to telling me something that he had known for days.

“I’ve been waiting for the right time to tell you that we are grandparents again”, he told me.

“Well, of course”, I told him. “I get new grandchildren all the time”

Dale just looked at me as if I was missing something, and I slowly repeated what he had said in my head.

“….you said we?”, I finally said.

“I did”

“Who?”

“Bael’s girlfriend just had quads” Dale informed me, “he promised me he would send us a picture when he gets a chance”

———————

A/N:  Lucia and Dale’s youngest child Bael is currently appearing in Mewmewmentor’s story Queens’ Hive. I think at this point Hive is slightly ahead in its timeline with the babies being born while Lucia was at university with Crux. So if anyone wants to see what Bael is up to, the chapters in which Bael appears begin here. 😀

End of an Era

It wasn’t long after the quads were born that they all received dolls in mail. Having had one of these toys myself when I was a child I was happy enough to let the babies play with theirs.

The toddlers immediately fell in love with their own special toy.

The girl’s doll were identical something that I found a little creepy.

The weather outside had made it a perfect time for training the toddlers. Only Eliya and Mika and their need to be outside, braved the weather for any significant amount of time.

Mika had been busy trying out every type of wish she could think off, so far she hasn’t tried wishing for love.

Hopefully she won’t try that particular wish out. The last thing we need is another potential Zombie boyfriend stalking the house.

Inside the house the Quads had been busy learning their way around the nursery.

Little Joslyn has taken a liking to the toy car from the toy box.

Both of the older girls have been wonderful with their little brother and sisters.

Especially Eliya who has taken every opportunity to help out with their training.

She is always in the nursery taking care of her little brothers and sisters.

I had thought Grandma would be leaving after our trip to Riverview, at least that was what she had told me she was going to do. Not that I mind that she is still here, far from it but the sudden change in plans had me a little concerned.

It was nice to have everyone together. Sometimes it seemed like the entire family was in the nursery.

That’s where when the unexpected happened. At least, it was something that I haden’t been expecting. My Grandma showed little reaction like she had been waiting for it to happen.

It was then that I finally realised why she had stayed and I felt a little stupid for not putting  it together earlier.

“It’s time”, she said softly.

“No..it can’t be.”, I sobbed.

“Yes, I know you understand. Anything you were unsure of before will soon become clear”, Lindsay continued to speak to me.

“but..”

“Lucia, you are my true heir and it is your job to look after our family and to support your heir when the time comes.”

“It’s time for me to go, but remember I love you.  I always have, even before you were born”, she told me. “Lucia, I’ll never truly be gone.”

“I love you too” I finally managed to answer.

“Girls, take care of your mum for me, okay?” she told Mika and Eliya, before looking towards the figure who had entered the room. “I’m ready”

__________

Lucia took her grandmother’s death hard. At first I thought she was going to be okay.

I soon realised she was just going through the motions and even then I could tell it wasn’t working.

I tried everything I could think of to help her but nothing I tried was working. Even the girls tried, and tried some of their fairy magic to help her but it only ever worked temporarily.

When she took to spending most of the day beside her grandmother’s grave I knew she needed help.

I needed help.

Past and Present

I had come home from my last trip with very mixed feelings. The entire experience had also left me feeling manipulated. Even the activities that usually helped me stay focussed, calm and relaxed seemed somehow tainted and for the moment even the usually soothing activity of adding paint to canvas wasn’t helping.

Both Mika and Eliya had been happy to see me when I had arrived home. Mika had been the one that had filled me in on what both she and her twin had been up to and  their ongoing discovery of their many in-born abilities. I didn’t have much to add to their discoveries. While I was somewhat familiar with what they could do, I only had previous knowledge of Arella and Caraline to draw on and both Mika and Eliya seemed to have gotten that far on their own.

My daughters had also discovered that Mika had a few added talents that Eliya had so far been unable to replicate. This made me question whether Mika had inherited more than just her wings from her father.

While I was gone Dale had organised a broomstick arena for Josef and Jarid.

He confided with me later that it had been a way to try to keep the boys busy and not plotting with and against  each other.

While I had been away Dale had discovered that both of the boys were witches and he was worried that this combined with their shared evil trait could cause trouble in the future.

I feared that he might just be right. Lindsay had already had a couple of run-ins with her youngest great-grandchildren. Josef in particular seemed to be developing a difficult attitude.

While in Riverview it had been lovely to see my father again, even if he did look more transparent and orange than I had remembered. He had been more aware of what had been happening in my life than I had ever realised and he had obviously been checking up on me from time to time. I found that thought comforting.

My encounter with Christopher however had left me with a feeling of guilt,  something that I had never experienced before. In one way I didn’t regret what had happened, if I was going to have children it was always nice if I at least liked the father and knew him a little. I often didn’t and Chris and I had a history and not a bad one. It had been good to see him, really good but emotions from our previous relationship had still been there, even after all this time. What I felt for Chris was nothing compared to what I felt for Dale but I still had felt something and that was where the guilt came in.

I’m sure that Dale could tell I was still working through some issues with the latest trip. I had already told him some of what had happened, not all, but some. I had mentioned seeing my father and meeting an old friend but I had left out the details.

I felt horrible about not telling him everything but it had been part of our deal, he really didn’t want to know about the other men and I really didn’t want to tell him. I had never been particularly comfortable coming home pregnant with other guys children.

“You seem tense”, Dale said, turning me around slightly so he could massage my shoulders. “Are you okay?”

“Yes……um no? I don’t know?”, I wailed. Great, apparently now answering even a simple question was now beyond me.

“Okay? I’m going to take that as a no” he replied, taking my hand and pulling me towards the rug in the corner of the room. “Do you want to talk to me about it?”

“I don’t think you want to know”

“Maybe not, but I think that maybe you need to tell me.”

“It isn’t part of our deal, its one of those things we were not going to discuss. Remember?”

“Luc, the deal is rubbish and you know it. It’s just an excuse I put together to convince you to give me a chance.”

“It’s still not fair to you. What I put you through, it’s not right”

“Maybe not but it was my decision. Mine. I wouldn’t change it” he told me, “Do you want to tell me?”

“Yes” I said softly. We were both quiet for a while, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say, I was relieved he was giving me a little time to think it through.

“Okay, umm?” I started, taking a deep breath before I continued. “You know how I said how I saw an old friend in Riverview?”

“Yes”

“What I should have said that  I saw an old boyfriend in Riverview” I confessed.

“Okay?” he asked, my hand dropped to my stomach briefly,  as I watched his eyes followed my hand before he looked at me again. “It’s his baby? he asked.

I nodded, “Chris and I were only teenagers when we dated. I don’t even know why we broke up really. I broke up with him and then I moved. I couldn’t give you a logical reason as to why? It just feels like I pushed into it by something that I didn’t understand at the time. By this!” I waved my arm around gesturing to the entire house. “I just feel a bit weird about it is all. I mean he’s dead now, right? A ghost. I didn’t even know he’d died. ”

“Do you still love him” Dale finally asked.

“No, there are still some feelings there but no I wouldn’t say I still loved him” I answered simply, “I do love you, though”

“Is that it?”

“Yes. Am I overacting, do you think?” I asked, after he helped me to my feet. “I feel like I’m overreacting”

“Maybe?”, he laughed.

“Hey!” I shoved him away, both of us walking towards the stairs leading down to the rest of the house.

“With what happened when you were a teen. Honestly? I’d be wondering too. It seems that there is so much about this destiny of yours that you know nothing about.” Dale finally answered,  taking hold of my hand and giving it a squeeze. “As far as any of that concerns me. Yes. You’re worrying too much, you’re very much stuck with me. Feeling any better now?”

“Maybe,  just a little” I replied. “Thankyou”

It wasn’t long after my discussion with Dale that the babies were due to arrive. Mika was the only one who freaked out this time. Dale seemed strangely calm. He might be finally getting used to seeing me in labour. This time I did take pity on him and allowed him drive me to the hospital.

It wasn’t to long before we were home with the new babies. First born was Hilde  who was born with the traits Clumsy and Friendly

Followed by her brother Tuck  who Loves the Outdoors and is a Light Sleeper

Little Joslyn is Absent Minded and Artistic

And finally Sari who was born with the traits Excitable and Athletic.

A/N: I think Dale might need to lay off the weight bench. I swear he’s so much bigger than when I made him in CAS and I just got a notification that he received another working out related achievement. If he’s not with Lucia or one of the kids he’s usually in the gym or on the basketball court. 😕 Also, this has been the first pregnancy since the start of the Dale/Lucia storyline that Dale received the betrayed moodlet. I don’t really know how Lucia got caught out this time, she was on the other side of town. I thought I might as well write it in, even if Lucia is more worried about it that Dale is. 😛

Fairy Fun

A/N: Just warning everyone that this update contains a lot of Eliya and Mika Picture Spam. They are adorable as teenagers and their brothers seem to be doing NOTHING at the moment while the girls are into EVERYTHING. 🙂

——————–

While my grandmother and I had been visiting in Riverview Dale had been at home looking after the Children. He was lucky that there were only four children in the house currently and none were of the age that needed constant supervision.

Although, he did receive a lot of requests for bedtime stories from both Josef and Jarid.

Mika and Eliya were busy playing Fairy Style.

They spent a lot of time in their tiny sprite form chasing each other around the house. It is one of those times that it would be helpful if they had each inherited different coloured wings. 😛

Both Eliya ans Mika are extremely curious, between them they seemed to have tried every activity possible. Thankfully, while I was away Dale insisted on Homework being done first.

Every afternoon after school Eliya and Mika took to finishing their homework in the hallway. Not even bothering to venture any further into the house until it was complete.

They seemed to be doing okay academically but their minds often wandered to the playtime that was awaiting for them.

Josef and Jarid sometimes didn’t even bother coming home to start on their homework. Often finding quiet places to work out the front of their primary school.

Once the girls were free from their homework, both girls spent time using the gaming system in the rec area.

Eliya even had Jarid there quietly keeping her company.

Mika was the first of the twins to discover that she was able to ‘cheat’ while using the claw machine.

She spent nearly an entire afternoon taking the items that she wanted.

I really thought she was past the age where she would want a toy car, but maybe she is just taking it for one of her little brothers?

Of a night Mika liked jumping on the trampoline.

I think she likes being outside under the stars. I had a much better pic of this lined up and then my game crashed. 😦

I’m really not sure how much Dale saw of them while I was away as they both seemed to enjoy sleeping in the fairy house.

Each of the twins have one activity that they enjoy more than anything else. For Mika it was dancing. It didn’t seem to matter what type but if there was music playing in the house Mika could usually be found dancing to it.

She also seems to have discovered the dance that her older sister Caraline loved to pieces. The Smustle.

I somehow think that Mika and Caraline would be the best of friends.

For Eliya, her favourite activity is Basketball.

She spends at least an hour out there every day working on her game.

She really seems to enjoy playing.

After being away from my family for a couple of days I was so glad to be home. 🙂

Birthdays to Celebrate

The older children were all busy with school when we finally decided to get started with Josef and Jerid’s toddler training.

Lindsay was especially eager to get started, which only made me wonder what she had planned for the trip we would be taking together.

She did however still take time to play and snuggle with the babies.

I had the fun task of teaching little Jerid to talk,

but then again, so did everyone else.

He seemed to take forever to train. The arrival of the full moon didn’t help.

I did have Jerid all to myself when it became time for him to learn how to walk.

Lindsay taught Josef to talk. It didn’t seem like he was paying a lot of attention.

Training was not the only thing happening in the nursery.

Eliya and Mika both spend some time in the nursery playing with either the doll house or the oven. One of the boys often ended up in the toy box peeking out at everyone.

The only task left before it was time for birthdays was teaching Josef how to walk.

“Come to Mama, Josef!”

I’ve had a lot of practice training toddlers and this time it seemed like Josef wanted to learn.

We left it until the morning to celebrate birthdays the entire household were there to cheer on the birthday boys and girls.

Most of us still had not changed out of our Pyjamas but that didn’t matter.

Josef aged up receiving the Star Quality trait.

His twin Jarid received the Bookworm trait.

It was also time for Mika and Eliya to celebrate their birthdays.

Iselle and Lindsay did not seem to be in the mood to celebrate these particular birthdays and were both sporting their grumpy faces.

Mika received the Star Quality trait just like her little brother.

Followed by her twin Eliya who became the first family member ever to receive the Brooding trait.

After those birthdays were complete I made everyone pose for a picture before it was time for the Quads to celebrate their birthday. I think it turned out rather nicely. 😀

That evening it was of course time for the Quads to celebrate their birthday.

Akir aged up receiving the Family Orientated Trait. Akir wishes to be surrounded by family.

Breyan received the Hopeless Romantic Trait. She is hoping to become a Fashion Phenomenon.

Ryne received the Rebellious Trait, he wishes to Max all of the New Social groups.

Finally the last of the quads aged up. Iselle received the Charismatic Trait. She hopes to become Super Popular.

The Quads quickly organised a photo of themselves for me.

Afterwards they gathered together to say their goodbyes.

Even though their arrival had been overshadowed by events beyond their control they had been a welcome addition to the family.

With all four of them leaving home at once the house was going to feel very empty.

I was going to miss them.

—————-

BONUS PICS: Decided to put a few of my unused photos here because they are the type of pics that don’t really see much use.

Nice Face Akir! 😛

Iselle is really very pretty when I can overlook that some of the faces that she pulls remind me of her father. Out of the quads, Iselle was the one who ended up looking the most like Nick. I random roll all of the kids and dads traits so when Nick rolled mean spirited his fate was sealed.  😛

Dale and Josef being cute together. ❤

Pics of Eliya and Mika taken straight after their birthdays.

I am super thrilled with how these guys turned out.

Home Once More

Although I had enjoyed my trip back to Hidden Springs I was happy to be back in my own house. I had missed everyone so much and I really wasn’t used to being away from them for any length of time. It was such a relief to be home.

Nothing much had changed in my absence.  My girls continued to entertain themselves. Mika taking advantage of the empty nursery to play at the table in there. The red blocks are still her favourites.

She had also continued to dance almost anywhere in the house. This time she was keeping Akir company in the rec area.

After spending so much time with the online version of the game Breyan decided to practice what she had learnt on the chess table we had tucked away in the gym.

She took the whole thing very seriously it was adorable.

It didn’t take her long to get back to her favourite activity and the chess table could just not compete with Breyan’s love of all things computer related.

Iselle was enjoying the slip’n’slide, something that I don’t think I have ever had the urge to try.

Breyan even tried it out. It was nice to see her outdoors enjoying the sunshine.

Iselle had become a regular fixture in the kitchen as she tried to make every dish imaginable.

Eliya was busy discovering just what she was capable of.

Dale and Ryne spent some time together watching television together despite their opposing traits. Though I do think that Dale was interrupting Ryne’s enjoyment of his favourite activity as he was continually trying to encourage Ryne to be more active.

When Dale wasn’t with me, work or spending time with one of the children he could usually be found doing an activity like this. I don’t know where he found the energy.

I prefered a much more sedentary activity along with the other bookworm in the house Akir.

The younger girls were making use of their very own fairy house . It was nice to see the little house recieving some use after being vacant for so long.

Dale and I were making sure to spend plenty of time together. Dale’s new work schedule meant that he was now home more often with fewer trips away, which I appreciated.

I was also trying to spend  time with Grandma and it seemed that she was trying to do the same.

Lindsay was planning to leave after a trip that she seemed determined to drag me along for but I had no desire to go anywhere until after the babies were delivered and trained so her plans had been delayed a little.

We spent a fair amount of time in the lounge room watching television but truthfully we barely paid any attention to what program was on and spent the entire time just talking.

I was starting to get rather large and had developed a distinct waddle.

But Dale didn’t seem to mind.

A sudden increase in back pain announced that babies were ready to be born.

Dale immediately freaked out on me and tried to take me to the hospital.

A quick look outside, the sound of heavy rain hitting our roof and the half hour it would take to drive into town convinced me that this birth was going to happen at home.

It was pouring outside and I had no desire to get soaked just to deliver in a hospital when I knew I was perfectly capable of having a home birth.

Dale eventually let me have my own way.

After a fair amount of pain it wasn’t long before I welcomed two beautiful baby boys into our home.

First born was Josef, who showed the potential to look very much like his father. He was born with the traits evil and clumsy.

Followed by his twin Jerid, who also received both the evil and clumsy trait. My evil/clumsy twins. ❤  Jerid seemed to take after my side of the family and also seemed to have an eye colour somewhere in-between Marcus’s almost white eyes and my brown.

A/N: I forgot to put Rhuarc back on the family tree when I moved Lucia into a new save. So this pregnancy and the next one (I kept forgetting) show what happens when Lucia has no parents in her family tree. Also, the boys traits were both random/locked in. I was surprised when rolling for the second trait that both boys ended up with the same two traits. 😀

Growing Up

After delaying the twins training to attend the Festival the day before it was time to get started. Grandma was keen to help me out, so I was sure that it was going to happen fairly quickly.

While Grandma and I got started on the toddler’s training, the quads were busy enjoying their last day of childhood. They would be aging up at the same time as the twins. Breyan was indudging her love of computers, it is often difficult to pry her away from the machine.

Iselle was busy pretending to be a queen ruling her many subjects. The boys seemed to have dissapeared somewhere I hoped that they were not getting into too much trouble.

Lindsay took on the task of teaching Eliya how to talk.

After spending most of the previous day in each others company they seemed to have developed an understanding and Eliya’s training moved quickly.

I decided that walking would be where I started with Mika.

Like Eliya, Mika seemed to be learning quickly.

Grandma insisted  on training Mika to talk as well, she said it helped her get to know the little ones so much better.  Mika seemed to find learning to talk  a struggle.

Having spent less time with Mika, Lindsay also found Mika more challenging to train.

The pair of them eventually found a way to communicate and I now have two walking and talking toddlers.

With their training complete it was time for some birthdays……a lot of birthdays. Mika and Eliya were up first. I wasn’t surprised when Dale brought Mika up to the cake, out of the twins she seemed to be the one he had bonded with the most.

Mika aged up receiving the Eccentric trait.

Eliya aged up just after her sister receiving the Mooch trait.

Then it was time for the quads to take their turn. Getting them all lined up proved to be a struggle so they all aged up at different times.

Ryne aged up first receiving the Perfectionist trait.

Breyan received the Ambitious trait for her teen birthday.

Akir became Shy.

and finally Iselle became a natural cook.

Mika and Eliya loved being a little bit older and like their previous fairy siblings immediately started dancing.

So far neither of them is exhibiting Caraline’s love of the smustle but they are having a lot of fun.

I made the mistake of mentioning to Dale that I really needed to start working out again…. It’s been ages since I have done anything athletic and a couple of shots at the basketball hoop does not really count.

He had me in the gym so fast my head still hasn’t stopped spinning,

I’m not sure why he felt the need to yell? I’m not sure if I felt any fitter afterwards but I was definitely a little sore the following day,

After their birthdays the quads had separated and they were now engaged in a number of activities around the house. How they were choosing to spend their time highlighted their different  personalities. Ryne was happy watching a little television.

While his brother Akir was busy being far more active.

He still has a long way to go before he has mastered this skill.

Iselle spent some quiet alone time in the sandpit.

I think she enjoys being outside as well as the solitude, there is very little peace once you venture inside the house.

Breyan seemed to change very little when she aged up.

She can, nearly always still be found in front of her very loved computer.

Mika and Eliya after they finished their dancing were so tired from their busy day of toddler training, birthdays and fairy dancing that they asked their great-grandmother Lindsay for bedtime stories.

Unfortunately it was not possible for Lindsay to read to the two of them at the same time and Eliya eventually left to find someone else willing to read her first ever story at bedtime.

Dale was happy enough to read her a story.

I was pleased to see them spending some more time together.

Previously Dale had seemed to spent more time with Mika than  with Eliya. So it was nice to see a bond forming between the two of them.

A/N: I’ve been staring at this chapter for days now. Too many birthdays…Good enough…I guess. 😕