Week 5 - Round 10 - 8 Maple Square (Graham)

A/N: Yeah, I'm slow on the updating nowadays. Sorry folks. It's summer, which means I've got three kids underfoot instead of two, and I'm spending a lot of time outdoors with them. The blog's not dead, just slow.

Previously at 8 Maple Square

Last round was pretty quiet for the family. The mostly just ran the business. In fact the only thing of note that happened was that Kenneth and Claire grew into toddlers. On another note, I've decided to take a page out of my Apocalypse Challenge and start dating my entries.

Friday (Fall)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I seem to always start the week off with something good happening! Way to go Oliver, no more skill-building for you!

Today is the last day that the twins need looking after, so Amber's decided to take the day off and build up her stock of handcrafted bouquets.

Woot! One more promotion to go to permaplat! Unfortunately Oliver doesn't work again until Tuesday. And he and Marylena are almost friends so we'll just top that off while we wait for the twins to grow up!

Serena seems to have a knack for showing up just in time for birthdays. I swear she's more interesting in her grandchildren than she ever was in her own children.

Normally I have all of my kids marry university students. I think I may make an exception and have Kenneth marry Marylena. She's pretty, and I'm pretty sure after interviewing her that she's a knowledge sim. And she's rich!!! Looks like a dream come true. Too bad that Kenneth has to inherit the house instead of Claire. Stupid points for all male/female marriages taking the males name, combined with the points for all the houses staying in the same name. Of course, I could have her marry Claire, but I prefer my sims to be straight unless it's absolutely necessary. Not because there's anything wrong with that, but because it's so much more fun cursing at them when they won't get pregnant right away, lol.

Hah! I caught you Serena! You really do like being a grandmother! Watch out, I just may remember this when I get to your house and give you a proper Granny makeover, lol.

Serena, you're big saggy granny butt is spoiling my synchronized grow-up shot!

Here they are in their own choose of clothes.....

Let's just do something about this. Claire's choice is just horrid, and I don't really like Kenneth's look much either. I swear, I need to remember to find more boys clothes.

Claire Graham
Neat-2, Outgoing-3, Active-9, Playful-7, Nice-4
Sagittarius

Kenneth Graham
Neat-2, Outgoing-9, Active-9, Playful-7, Nice-3
Gemini

At least the twins birthday gave Amber a chance to connect with her mom.

To the chess table with both of you. I will not abide children who barely know each other.

That chore out of the way, make friends with your grandmother so she'll leave you some cash kiddo.

Saturday (Fall)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's Saturday morning. Are the kids watching cartoons like normal children? Of course not, they're working on their cooking skills. Well if they want to sell lemonade, and they do of course, they've got to learn to make it first.

It seems that Kenneth is one of those kids who gets a permanent boost from the smart milk. His sister and he started studying at the same time and yet he earned 4 points to her 2, which means I let him out early to try his hand at the lemonade stand.

Claire did get her turn eventually, mostly so that that want would stop clogging up her wants panel.

I'd have to say that the business is doing really well. Look at all the customers with bags in their hands. They may not be expensive bags, but we're not really in this for the money. It's more to see if we can get to level 10, and on the odd chance that some of Knowlton's locals will buy a snapdragon, thus saving themselves from having to earn a gold floral badge. My only worry is the amount of pregnant sims this place attracts. At one point every single pregnant sim in town was in here at the same time.

It's always seemed silly to me that the kids are ready for bed at 6:30-7:00pm. It should be more like 8pm-8:30pm. Thanks to Seasons though, I can now caffeinate my children!

Sunday (Fall)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Amber returns in the early hours of the morning fully recharge and sets to work restocking and building more stock. The work of an entrepreneur is never done.

What a lovely sight! Look at all those sales bars going up!

Monday (Winter)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's Monday finally! With the kids off to school I can concentrate more fully on the shop. Not much happened on Sunday. The business got to level 7 and the kids spent the day skill building and building relationships, not to mention cheering up their grandmother who seems to hate her daughter's store.

Cool! Our first Blue-Bag customer! You've got to admit, that's pretty impressive when you're dealing with low end stuff like flowers. Of course it probably helps that Amber raised the price of everything to average this morning.

The kids both brought home friends from school. I forgot what a pain in the butt that is when you're running a home business. I had to keep the shop open late in order for them to have time to make friends with the brats. It was almost 10pm before Amber and Oliver had time to teach the kids to do their homework. Today almost wiped out their inventory though, so tomorrow will be restocking, cleaning, and the headmaster.


End of Round Review

Amber
Friends: Family-8, Non-Family-15
Work: Cult Leader
IW: 7 / 7 Skills Maxed
Badges: Floral-Gold, Register-Silver, Restocking-Silver, Sales-Gold

Oliver
Friends: Family-3, Non-Family-6
Work: Theorist
IW: 7 / 7 Skills Maxed
Badges: Floral-Bronze, Register-Silver

Claire
Friends: Family-4, Non-Family-2
School: B+, Public
Skills: Cooking-3, Charisma-8, Body-8, Logic-3, Creativity-6

Kenneth
Friends: Family-4, Non-Family-1
School: B+, Public
Skills: Cooking-8, Charisma-8, Body-8, Logic-8, Creativity-2, Cleaning-4

Amber's Flowers
Rank 8 - Esteemed Establishment
Business Value: $40,000
Customer Loyalty Stars: 78
Household Value: $112,769

Week 5 - Round 9 - 8 Maple Square (Graham)

Previously at 8 Maple Square

Now that Seasons is here, and the Grahams have two babies, the first order of business was providing Claire and Kenneth with Snapdragons. After that Amber spent some time building up her stock.

Oliver spent the night at the teleprompter, bringing himself much joy.

Amber and Oliver's schedules are great when it comes to avoiding nannies, but not so great when it comes to birthdays. You see Oliver gets home from work at the same time that Amber has to leave for work. It's too late in the afternoon now for Amber to open the shop, so she's helping the twins with their birthdays so she can spend some time with them before work. First up to bat is Claire.

Claire Graham
Neat-2, Outgoing-3, Active-9, Playful-7, Nice-4
Sagittarius

Next it was Kenneth's turn, right before his parents traded places.

Kenneth Graham
Neat-2, Outgoing-3, Active-9, Playful-7, Nice-3
Gemini

Oliver got right to work on teaching Kenneth to walk while Claire had her nap, but he never finished the job because Claire woke up.

Woah! That is one ticked off bear.

Toddlers, toddlers everywhere, and nary a Mommy in sight.

Oliver managed to teach Claire to walk, and potty train Kenneth. Amber's home now, so Oliver has returned to his podium and Amber's taken over toddler skilling.

Amber expanded her shop to include an area for the toddlers. This way she can take care of her children and run her shop. Who knows, they may even pick up some friends while here.

Amber's Mystery Reviewer. She didn't get a bad review, but she didn't get a great one either. Oliver really needs to finish maxing his skills so he can start helping out in the shop.

Speaking of which, Oliver has maxed out his Charisma, which leaves just Mechanical.

First sighting of a toddler in winter gear! That snowsuit and those earmuffs are so cute!

Kenneth's moved on to logic now. He's so cute with his jammies that match the shop!

You'd probably have better luck with the dummy if you weren't wearing winter gloves.

"Honey? Which button do I push again?"

Amber and Oliver are actually doing a great job of juggling everything. The house is a bit messy, but it doesn't really matter since they spend so little time there. Besides, Claire and Kenneth will grow-up tomorrow night and they'll be able to help out, not to mention be a lot less work once they've been taught to do their homework.

It's getting quite cool outside now, so some more renovations have been done to allow Amber to make her bouquets inside.

End of Round Review

Amber
Friends: 13
Work: Cult Leader
IW: 7 / 7 Skills Maxed
Badges: Floral-Gold, Register-Silver, Restocking-Silver, Sales-Gold

Oliver
Friends: 4
Work: Top Secret Researcher
IW: 6 / 7 Skills Maxed
Skills: Cooking-10, Mech-9, Charisma-10, Body-10, Logic-10, Creativity-10, Cleaning-10
Badges: Register-Bronze

Claire
Friends: 1
Skills: Charisma-8, Logic-1, Creativity-5

Kenneth
Skills: Charisma-8, Logic-7

Household Value: $96,409

Amber's Flowers
Rank 5: Proficient Purveyor
Business Value: $25,000
Customer Loyalty Stars: 43

Week 4 - Round 8 - 8 Maple Square

Previously at 8 Maple Square

Oliver claims he's learning to cook, but to me it just looks like he's stuffing his face.

Amber's either praying to the porcelain god, or she's pregnant.

Definetly pregnant then. As you can see the business is doing quite well for Rank 0.

Ouch! Good thing sim women seem to have stomaches made of steel when it comes to protecting unborn children.

Amber is slowly getting the hang of the cash register, but restocking is still a mystery to her.

Well well well, if it isn't Tara in her trailer trash outfit! An interesting side note is that Oliver finds her repulsive.

"Wow Sam, you look marvelous! You know what else would look marvelous? Some of my beautiful flowers in your home! Bring some home as a special treat for Jasmine! Isn't that a wonderful idea?"

"Hey Andrea, did you know that we'll have snow soon? I heard that the Plumbbob Diety has discovered a way to have all sorts of weather. She said something about an expansion pack, whatever that is."

Oliver has finally maxed out his cooking!

"You know Eddie, my sister always loved my flowers!"
"Sister? Which sister? Why are you telling me?"
"Oh come on Eddie, I've known about you and April forever, but it was very sweet of you to be concerned for my feelings. As you can see, I love my husband very much, and I hope you make April as happy as he's made me."

"Plumbbob Diety? Something feels strange."

"I want my husband!!!!"

Welcome to the world little Kenneth Graham. Kenneth looks exactly like his father.

Welcome to the world little Claire Graham. Claire looks exactly like her mother. I swear she only had one piece of cheesecake, and that was because she was too tired to cook and she had bought some from Serena.

At least it will be easy to tell these twins apart! Even if they were two boys or two girls, that skin tone difference will make it easy to see who has which baby.

Sometime in the early hours of Monday, Oliver manages to max out his body skill. Only two skills left now!

Amber somehow finds time to spend with her babies in between running the business, restocking, and making more flowers for the shop. She's determined to be there for her children, unlike her mother, who never even called to say congratulations.

Gah! If they weren't so handy with babies and toddlers around, I swear I would ban the darn cleanbots from the neighborhood! I still might when I've got more grandparent type people to help around the houses.

*crosses fingers for luck*
Please don't get fried, Please don't get fried.

Normally frying one of my sims wouldn't bug me too much, but with babies in the house I dread the arrival of the social worker. I could get over Amber's death, but not having the babies taken by the social worker just because Amber died trying to fix this stupid thing.

As you can see, despite pregnancy, child birth, and raising children, Amber's flower shop is slowly growing. She doesn't want it too big though. At the moment she can just about run it by herself. And if she ever unravels all the mysteries of restocking and the register, she won't have to shut down twice a day to restock.

End of Round Review

Amber
Friends: 13
Work: Cult Leader
IW: 7 / 7 Skills Maxed
Badges: Flower Arranging - Gold, Register - Silver, Restocking - Bronze, Sales - Gold

Oliver
Friends: 4
Work: Project Leader
IW: 5 / 7 Skills Maxed
Skills: Cooking-10, Mech-3, Charisma-5, Body-10, Logic-10, Creativity-10, Cleaning-10

Amber's Flowers
Rank 4: Burgeoning Bazaar
Business Value: $20,000
Customer Loyalty Stars: 28

Household Value: $75,327