The Gregory Legacy, Chapter 2

(originally published 11/25/14)

I'm moving the first six chapters from Slideshares to this blog, so here is Chapter 2 . . . again!

Welcome back to the Gregory Legacy! When we left off, founder Natalie and her husband Jaron here had just welcomed a new daughter named Corinne, despite the fact that they're still living on the lawn. Hopefully things will be looking up from here now that the legacy has really, truly started.

At first, the new parents were very pleased with their new baby. Despite the fact that Natalie has the family-oriented trait, it is actually Jaron who spends more time with Corinne. He loves to go over and coo at her or rock her when he doesn't have other interactions. Natalie gets sad when she hasn't interacted with Corinne for a while, like when she's at work, so she still spends plenty of time with her too. Altogether, Jaron and Natalie are very happy that they brought Corinne into this world . . .

. . . except when she's crying two feet from their bed in the middle of the night. Then they're not so excited about being new parents, lol. We need a house with rooms pronto.

As it is, the only room they possess is the tiny bathroom, whose walls I carelessly left down in this pic, and it's not really enough to call this place a home yet. Jaron and Natalie are midlevel in their careers with Jaron having reached the branch in comedy and Natalie still a bit earlier in the art career. They're bringing in somewhat decent money, but they know they'll need to save quite a bit for a house and keep some in reserve for bills. Until then, it's cereal on the bed in the middle of an open space.

Jaron needs to work on his comedy routines, so he heads to the library. Of course, several of his paramours just had to be on the lot at the same time, so when he sits down and someone at another table starts up a flirty conversation with him, it upsets poor Azure here.

Azure: "I thought I was his one and only despite the fact that he lives with another woman!"

Not even close, Azure. Not even close.

SimRoxy still comes by often to knock on the bathroom door. Apparently today she was at a fancy party. Seeing the sims in their various outfits makes me wonder about the lives they're leading outside of my control . . .

SimRoxy and Natalie are pretty good friends, which is not really surprising considering they have the same traits. They both love to read, for instance, and then talk about authors or whatever. Natalie is reading about handiness to help with the toilet that keeps breaking, but simRoxy likes to come over to read ridiculous books.

Natalie: "Jaron, why are we standing out here?"
Jaron: "I don't know. I just felt this sudden urge to stand away from all the buildable area on our lot."
Natalie: "Hmm. Hey, look! Is that what I think it is?"

Jaron: "A giant mutant butterfly? It sure is, Nat. It sure is."
Natalie: "Oh, also, I guess there's a house or something here now. We should probably go check it out."
Jaron: "Yeah, before the butterfly eats us."

Look! A house! With rooms even! Corinne has her very own room at the moment, but knowing me, I won't be able to resist having Natalie and Jaron give her siblings despite their relative poverty. They only have enough for another round of bills now, so they'll need to keep working hard, but they have a roof over their heads finally.

Jaron: "I'm feeling a strange sense of deja vu, Nat."
Natalie: "Metoo. I feel like we've walked up stairs into a house before . . . oh wait, that's right, we did! Only the controller didn't let us keept it."
Jaron: "think we'll get to keep the house this time?"
Natalie: "Who knows? She's capricious."

Hey, not my fault!

Natalie: "Wow, eating cereal at a table? And you can work on your comedy routines in a four-walled enclosure? This is truly the high life! I think we could end the legacy now and call it successful."

So not even close, Natalie. You guys have a lot more work to do, and many generations to do it in.

Jaron is Father of the Year. He is always the one that gets up to feed Corinne in the middle of the night. I can't wait until she grows up out of this creepy stage, though.

I got the notice that Natalie's adult birthday is coming up, so Jaron baked  cake for her. Isn't that sweet? He's a great father, and while he's also Adulterer of the Year, he's kind of a great husband most of the time too.

Natalie: "Oh joy."

Well, well, well. Look who got a special early birthday gift! Baby number 2 is on the way, and doesn't Natalie look just thrilled? Once again, she got the morning sickness moodlet occasionally but never actually got sick with this pregnancy. Impressive.

And just like that she's showing again. This time I know not to freak about how big she gets, though.

On anther note, I put a few lights in each room, but they seem really inadequate. Do more expensive lights cast more light in the room, or do you just have to use a ton of them? The Gregorys can't afford either option at the moment, but it'd be nice to see easier inside the house.

Natalie: "Who's going to have a little sibling? You are! You better grow up soon, though. We're going to need that bassinet in another two days."

I'm letting Corinne age up naturally because it gives her more easy time for bonding with her parents without really having to worry about her moods or needs for the most part. The llamacorn in the background - which should really be called a llamapegacorn, since it has wings - was bought to appease Natalie. Apparently being family-oriented makes you want toys, even when your child is too young to play with them.

Jaron: "Well hello, Katrina. My, you're looking lovely today."
Katrina: "Aren't you the guy who broke my sweet daughter Nina's heart last chapter?"
Jaron: "Perhaps, but she's welcome to come back to me any time. Now, I need to kiss 10 sims, and you are looking eminently kissable right now, my dear."
Katrina: "Well, official canon is that I apparently have little to no common sense when it comes to men, so I must say, you're getting me a little hot and bothered!"
Jaron: "Care to come back to my house while my wife is out working to earn money to feed our infant daughter?"
Katrina: "Oh, how romantic! I thought you'd never ask!"

Another kiss down. Nina still hates Jaron for breaking up with her according to her red bar, and I can't imagine this will help, but a serial romantic's gotta do what a serial romantic's gotta do.

Corinne grew up and immediately wandered out of the nursery to go steal a piece of Natalie's unused birthday cake from the refrigerator while I wasn't looking. She's an interesting mix of her parents. She definitely has Jaron's eyes, but a lot of the rest is from Natalie, especially those gargantuan cheekbones. I think they look a little more balanced on Natalie, but maybe Corinne will grow into them.

Here's Corinne's makeover. She's cute. Her trait is lazy (wonderful! absolutely fantastic!) so I put her in sweats, because that's what I feel like wearing when I'm being lazy. To match her room, her favorite colors are pink and purple.

Corinne rolls frequent whims to nap, regardless of her mood. She just wants to sleep all the time. So, um, here's a picture of her doing that.

Corinne's aspiration as a child is to be an art prodigy, so we were able to scrape together some money for a drawing table for her.

Natalie: "Neat cake, Jaron."
Jaron: "Yeah, it's the second one I had to bake thanks to Corinne. Now, don't you have something you want to do?"
Natalie: "Not really. What did you have in mind?"
Jaron: "Well, we're in party clothes and your age bar is green and sparkly and the game says you should grow up, so, you know, maybe you should try that."
Natalie: "Eh. Nope. I'm happy being a young adult forever."

I could not figure this out at the time. Natalie was definitely due to age up, but the options that would do so were all greyed out for her. Jaron could blow out the candles or whatever, but he was a day younger than Natalie so he didn't have a flashing bar yet. I tried a bunch of different things, including having Jaron bake a third cake - the chocolate one here - and having Natalie "celebrate" first, which produced this interesting pose but brought us no closer to aging her up. I also had Natalie bake her own cake. I just wanted her to grow up and I couldn't figure out what element I was missing for it to happen.

Corinne: "Mom? Can't we have the cake for dinner?"
Natalie: "I wish. No, I guess I'm being told to put it away and try again tomorrow. Or something."
Jaron: "This Sexy Suit makes my dance moves extra sexxay!"
Natalie: "Jaron, keep your sexy, sexy pants on."
Corinne: "Yeah, Dad. Ew!"

Corinne is napping again, but -- get this -- this time she's facing the wall! She's such an interesting child, don't you think? I hope the next kidlet rolls a more useful or amusing trait when he or she ages up. In the meantime, I have a bunch of pics of Corinne napping before I got bored and stopped taking them.

Corinne: "This llamapegacorn fills me with ennui."

Corinne: "Just kidding! I love it! It talked! Wheeee! Whoosh! Look at you fly, llamapegacorn!"

Corinne: "And then the llamapegacorn and I had an adventure! After we saved the princess, we stormed the beaches of the pirates' cove and then we took a nap, of course."
Natalie: "Yes, of course, dear."

Corinne is a little bit obsessed with the llamapegacorn. She carries it around everywhere and swings it around while she talks to people.

Well, another day has passed by and it is now Jaron's turn to age up. I have heard of sims being sad if their birthday isn't celebrated, so I wanted to avoid that, though Natalie was doing her best to work for it. So the unused chocolate cake from Natalie's birthday is finally put to use and, judging by his face, Jaron nearly passes out from blowing out his candles.

Jaron: "Well, Nat. I'm an adult now and you're still a young adult. Don't you think it would be fun to have your birthday now?"
Natalie: "Nah, I'm not feeling it yet."

Grr! What is the problem? Her bar has been green for at least two days at this point.

Jaron: "She's just being a woman. Not wanting to get old and all that stuff."
Oh, so you want to pin this on her femaleness? This woman is not impressed.
Jaron: "What?! Controllers have gender?! I thought you were just creepy faceless entities that beamed commands into our brains and built us house and took them away!"
That was not my fault.
Jaron: "But you are a creepy faceless entity, right?"
This conversation is over.

Natalie is suuuuuper pregnant, but she still has a lot of work around the house. She's upgraded a few things but, even though they have a house, they're still pretty much in survival mode, careening between one need and another, one emergency or broken toilet after the other, just trying to keep things moving forward. This part of the legacy can be a little hard. I'm sure after I've played a few generations and figured out the little tricks and shortcuts, this will all be much easier, but a lot of this part is kind of a slog.

Corinne: "I am not so sure about this school thing. You know, two days ago I was pooping my diaper and now you're expecting me to leave the house for the first time ever and go off to school?"
Um, yup.
Corinne: "Okay...I guess I'll give it a try. I'd rather be napping, though."
Noted.

Jaron: "Nat! I'm so happy we're going to have another little one! Nd by the looks of things, we're close!"

I'm just happy that Jaron can be romantically-inclined without fearing children. That part is awesome, though for the record I'm still not sold on his aspiration.

Corinne: "Mommy? Will the baby be a boy or a girl?"
Natalie: "We don't know yet, sweetie."
Corinne: "I hope it's a girl and we can be best friends!"
Natalie: "I'm sure you'll get along great no matter whether you get a brother or a sister."
Corinne: "Okay. Hey, Mom?"
Natalie: "Yeah?"
Corinne: "I'm glad I get a sibling. It'll be fun!"
Natalie: "I'm glad you -- ah -- think that Corinne. Ooh. I, uh -- ow -- need to go now. Oof."

The best way to spend labor.

Natalie: "Ah! Ow! Oh man, I forgot how much this part sucks! Jaron, why are you just standing there?"
Jaron: "Something told me to stand here with a stupid expression on my face and keeps canceling my desire to go dance instead."
Natalie: "Well, thanks for the support, I guess."

I love how sim fathers couldn't care less that their partner is giving birth. Jaron is so not even interested. I don't know whether that's better than everyone and the gardener running into the bedroom to watch the birth, but it's kind of annoying to me.

Natalie: "Welcome, little girl! What are we going to name you?"

This is Marjorie, who looks exactly like Corinne did so far. The babies still look wrong to me but I don't get the shivers from looking at them anymore. I wish they were cuter. I can't quite put my finger on it, but they just nosedive into the Uncanny Valley for me.

As you can see from the corner of the counter, we are gearing up for another attempt at Natalie's birthday. This walls-down pic is here to illustrate Corinne's supreme sink-breaking powers. Her action queue had her using the toilet -- which necessitates hand-washing -- and then cleaning up a dirty dish from the table so we can put the cake on it. In those two actions, she managed to break both sinks. Brava, Corinne. Just...way to go there.

Then, while Corinne stands in the spray from the broken sink, Natalie finally decides to grow up! Turns out they can't grow up while pregnant. I don't know why, but that was what was holding her back. I'm sure this is old news to most of you since I sat on this chapter for a while before writing it, but it was frustrating as heck for me when I realized all that extra rigmarole of trying to get her to celebrate it was completely unnecessary, and she has gone from being a day older than Jaron to a day younger, which annoys me. Anyway, happy birthday, Natalie!

Natalie: "Ooh! Maybe I should have stayed a young adult!"
Jaron: "Gasp! Nat! Your party outfit! It's sparkly, like mine. For this one, brief, shining moment, you too have a Sexy Suit!"
Corinne: "Dad, why is it so wet over here?"

Now that The Birthday Issue is solved and we can all get on with our lives, Natalie and Jaron get a start on number three of their kids. I think I'll leave it at three, but I really wanted to see a kid that had more of Natalie's coloring. Plus I love sim babies, creepy or not.

Natalie is either energized or feeling creative in this pic. I don't remember which shower she took, but the real question is this: why is she holding a fork?! One of the great mysteries of life, my friends.

She also took a pregnancy test, and she and Jaron have conceived on their first try for the third time. Baby number three is officially on its way.

Jaron is still working on those 10 kisses, this time with Dina. I dream of someday repairing his relationship with Nina so he can be seeing all three of the Caliente girls. A lofty goal, right?

(Original caption referred to a picture edited in the slideshow, but this original pic is not edited, so use your ~~~**imagination**~~~.)

Jaron: "Why is it so bright in here?"
It's not. Trust me, it's actually quite dark where you're standing.
Jaron: Then why is it so bright? I don't think I've ever seen the actual color of our walls in our dark little hovel."
Someone may have brightened the picture too much while trying to adjust for those stupid useless lights in your house.
Jaron: "Oh."

Natalie: "Heading off to work while pregnant again. Jaron has the day off. I'm sure he'll spend it cleaning up and looking after our children, perhaps prepare a nice dinner so I don't have to cook when I come home. Oh, who am I kidding?"

Yeah, sorry, Natalie, but Jaron and the Sexy Suit spend his days off making his aspiration happen with whatever female sim he can get in his contact list. I don't eve remember this one's name, because as we all know, I take great notes.

Random: "Hmm, that was a nice kiss and flirting session, but I'm not so sure about this cake."
That's because it's rotten, and it's been sitting there since Natalie's birthday. We wait for the entire kitchen/dining area to get unbearably filthy then have a cleaning day in one fell swoop.
Random: "Yeah, okay, but it tastes kind of funny."
Sigh.

Corinne: "Dad, this homework fills me with ennui."
Jaron: "Who even taught her that word?"

Oh, god! Look at the way she's looking at me. Creepy, I tell you! And I think the babies are on to me. Now they're breaking the fourth wall to get to me. No, I'm not paranoid. Why do you ask?

simJ: "Seriously? Get a grip, sis."
You hush, simJ, and go back to your drink. You spend more time in bars than a teen should, by the way. I'll have to tell your real self that her simself is a lush. I noticed you refused to tip Jaron for his comedy routine this time, as well.
simJ: "Eh, it wasn't that funny this time."

Jaron: "I'm never going to get a promotion. I'm going to be stuck in this horrible plaid sport coat forever."
It might help if you spent more time telling jokes and less time sucking face. Just a thought.

Marjorie grows up, and she's cyber Mickey Mouse, apparently. Time for a makeover.

Here she is. She's a little Jaron clone nearly. She might have Natalie's nose, but that's about it. And her trait is...gloomy! I'm really batting a thousand with these traits, let me tell you. Marjorie's aspiration is art prodigy just like her sister.

Marjorie cheats at chess! Those that know me well know I love a good mean Sims 2 sim, so chess cheating evokes some sweet memories.

Here's the girls. They're quite different in some ways. Although Corinne's defining trait is lazy, she's pretty peppy and Marjorie is just so not. Corinne looks more like their mom and Marjorie more like their dad. But at the end of the day, they still sleep in the same type of bed. And -- satisfyingly -- there were perfect recolors of these beds to match the girls' personalities. That is not as easy as it looks what with there not being multiple separately recolorable parts to the bed.

It's morning and Corinne is ready for the next adventure life brings her...at least until naptime. Marjorie woke up sad. I know that eventually she'll be able to paint better or something from this trait, but for right now it's just a pain. I hope baby #3 rolls a good trait.

The girls are home from school and now it's Corinne's turn to frown. Every chance card opportunity from school has turned out poorly for her as a child. Every one. I cannot choose right for her to save my life. For once, Marjorie is actually happier than her sister.

Natalie: "Agh! It's time!"

Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't really seem like the ideal way to hold a newborn. Regardless, let's welcome the third baby, who is a boy this time and has Natalie's skin color!

Oh my god. I think they're getting more terrifying. Just look at that expression and tell me he's not hungering for the blood of the innocents. This is Dorian, by the way.

Marjorie: "Heh. It talked."

Marjorie has discovered the magic that is the llamapegacorn. It's enough to brighten her day for an hour or so.

Marjorie: "Hi Karlee. I only know you because you played with me as a baby once when you were over dating my dad, but would you mind coming inside and watching us?"
Karlee: "What? Why?"
Marjorie: "Well, both our parents are heading to work at the same time for the first time, and we don't know what will happen to our brother, Dorian. The controller hasn't played far enough ahead to know if an adult has to be in the house, so we're hoping your presence will keep him from being taken away or something. We don't really know, to be honest."
Karlee: "Of course I'll help! Any friend of the great kisser Jaron is a friend of mine!"
Marjorie: "Eww, Karlee. Just eww."

Meanwhile...riveting.

Incidentally, as I'm sure you already know, Dorian just popped away to daycare so it wasn't an issue and the girls got to know Karlee, one of their dad's mistresses, for no good reason. They've wanted to be friends with her ever since. Constantly. Like they roll up that whim every day. Sigh.

Karlee: "So ladies, as long as we're visiting, humor me. Has your family chosen an heir?"
Marjorie: "More like heiress!"
Karlee: "You mean...?"

Marjorie: "Yep, I'm the heiress. Generation two Marjorie Gregory, reporting for duty. Now that there's three of us, the controller decided to choose random for the heir selection method, and it came up with my name. I can see it now: The Gloomy Gregorys. We'll be like a depressed dance troupe or something."

Corinne: "I'm just happy because I bet I'll get to take more naps as a spare."

While the girls work on their extra credit here, let me discuss the heiress situation. Even though I've complained about her being gloomy, I really like the way Marjorie looks and she's kind of funny when she's sad. Besides, she's sure to roll better traits the next two times she grows up, right? I'm kind of sad that Natalie's looks are ending so soon, but I think Marjorie will be a fun heiress. It's kind of interesting to do it completely randomly instead of by voting, where at least you have the influence of how you wrote the character. I like it being out of my hands, too. Keeps it interesting. So here's to Marjorie the heiress!

Oops. Jaron went to work just a wee bit too tired. I'm really still getting the hang of this thing, lol. And yes, he's still in that plaid coat. He's never going to get promoted at this rate.

I directed all of the non-babies in the house to have breakfast at the same time so I could have a nice family shot of them together, and this is what I get. No family shot, and a nice picture of llamapegacorn behind. Thanks a lot, guys.

Okay, this is actually pretty cute. I don't mind the babies as much when they're interacting, as long as they're not making creepy faces.

Jaron is still very interested in his children. Meanwhile, Corinne is trying to raise her mental skill to get an A in school. Is it just me or is it ridiculously hard to get them to an A at this stage in the legacy?

Natalie started job hopping because her aspiration made her want to reach certain levels in a certain number of careers. She still enjoys painting, though. Jaron has to work on his comedy routines all the time, so they can spend a little time together in the study area of the house.

One thing that reliably makes Marjorie happy is spending time with her sister. They get a lot of whims to be funny around each other, etc. They're both working on their mental skill, but they're also getting a real great relationship going too.

To keep working on those skills for school, I got them a set of monkey bars. The girls really enjoy playing outside for the first time, and it's nice to be able to take bright pictures once in a while.

Marjorie: "That was awesome."
Corinne: "You know it."
.
.
.
Corinne: "Again?"
Marjorie: "Again!"

Corinne keeps plugging away at her creative skill too, to try to fulfill her childhood aspiration of art prodigy. All she has left to do is get to level 10 in creativity, but her birthday is quickly approaching.

Marjorie: "Okay, big blocky piece. You go here! Next to...the other big blocky piece. And across from...the pointy blocky piece. Seriously, who designed this chess set? Where are the horsies?"

Jaron's glutton tendencies ruin an otherwise perfectly nice father-daughter dinner.

Isn't this picture just the cutest? The girls really love their dad. He definitely makes up for the annoyingness of his aspiration with his great parenting.

Great dad Jaron was interacting with Dorian right before he grew up, so he was standing in the way, and this was the only shot I got where it didn't look like Dorian was punching him in the crotch.

On another note, Dorian, what the hell are you wearing?

Dorian: "Aw. Where did my awesome pink hat, gold glasses, red jacket, and lime green shorts go?"
Into the rubbish, that's where. That was a god-awful combination you grew up in. You do look good in red, though, so here's a better outfit.

Dorian is almost a complete gender-swapped mini-me of Natalie except he has Jaron's eyes. He's the only one that got her lighter hair color. He rolled creative, which fills me with joy because finally one of them got a good trait, but his childhood aspiration is to be a rambunctious scamp. Of course he couldn't roll art prodigy too, which would match his trait. There will be no confluence of traits and aspirations here, apparently.

While I was changing Dorian's outfit I was checking out everyone else' clothes too, and apparently the outfit they're in when you leave the limited outfit version of CAS is what they'll be wearing. So the girls randomly changed into party clothes while finishing up their homework. Ok. Sure.

Natalie: "I'm just going to give this situation a gigantic side-eye and get going to work."

That's probably best, Natalie. Incidentally, Bella isn't actually mad AT Jaron. She just came over that way.

Natalie: "Well gee, that makes me feel a lot better that they'll soon be getting along well."

Sorry.

Jaron: "Don't be made, my sweet Bella. Here, I got you a rose!"
Bella: "Oh, that's so thoughtful! I have to admit, you're a charmer, Jaron."

Meanwhile, the girls are inside studying. I don't know whether children get upset with cheating and I don't want to find out, so Jaron keeps his extracurricular activities outside.

Bella is Jaron's 10th kiss. Now he wants a bunch of gold medal dates and to have 5 strong romantic relationships at once. He already has 10 in charisma just from being such a flirt. Natalie and he have a great romantic relationship, but the others from before have decayed seemingly really fast, so he's going to have to work hard to maintain four others.

Dorian: "So, even though I know our parents love us, I do have to wonder why we end up eating cereal so often."
Corinne: "Meh."
Dorian: "Also, why are you two wearing party clothes?"
Marjorie: "Beats me. Some things just happen."
Corinne: "Life is like, so weird."
Dorian: "Tell me about it."

Please notice Jaron passionately kissing Bella just outside the window while Dorian regales his sisters with some enthusiastic story. I also feel like the llamapegacorns is in so many of these pictures, it may as well be a family member too. Nah. It is just a toy, after all.

Marjorie: "There, there, llamapegacorn. I feel your pain. The sting of rejection cuts us all at some time. Be still, my friend, and the pain will pass."

Geez, gloomy and dramatic!

What's wrong, Natalie?

Natalie: "I'm kind of bored. All I've been doing is going to work and fixing stuff and feeding my kids. I could use some social interaction that doesn't center around the llamapegacorn."

SimRoxy to the rescue! Apparently she doesn't like knocking on the house door as much as she liked the bathroom door, but she's still seeking Natalie out occasionally. She usually stops by when Natalie's at work.

They find some time to bond again, and Natalie's mood passes.

Well...that's...interesting.

Marjorie: "No, Dorian. I'm standing here. You can't stand here too. You need to stand at least a few feet away, okay? I like you, but not that much."

Llamapegacorn again! That is all.

Natalie: "Good morning, Marjorie. Why don't you join Corinne and me at breakfast?"
Marjorie: "Is it really? I hadn't noticed."
Natalie: "Is it what?"
Marjorie: "A good morning. Sigh. Maybe it is for some people."
Corinne: "Don't mind her, Mom. She wakes up this way most days."

Okay, this is a little amusing.

Jaron: "Oh, Katrina, help me fulfill my dreams!"
Katrina: "Anything for you, my dear!"
Jaron: "I dream of having five serious romantic relationships, and I want to make you one of them!"
Katrina: "Okay, that's good, I guess. I can handle that."
Jaron: "I also dream of dating all three Caliente ladies now that Nina's red bar has worn off."
Katrina: "That's...a bit more of a stretch."

Ah! Would you kids stop creating nightmare fuel? Did they really design this lot so that there are only two slots for kids returning from school at the same time? Because that seems really stupid.

Corinne is really close to her birthday and is not close to getting an A or fulfilling her aspiration since she's been focusing on both. I decided to have Marjorie just focus on her aspiration and reaching 10 in creative so it'll carry over. She can remain a B student forever, as far as I'm concerned.

Haha, I love this. They do a little "Yes! We get to do it!" dance whenever one of them asks the other to woohoo. Way to keep the spark alive there, guys.

All kidding aside, they are very much in love. They have full bars in friendship and romance. They're as close as can be. Even though Jaron's aspiration bugs me a little, I really like these two as a couple.

Almost got a family breakfast shot. And yes, Jaron didn't make it but the llamapegacorn did. Natalie changed her sleepwear a little while back because between the weight she put on from her pregnancies and the fact that her kids are getting older, the button-up didn't really seem appropriate anymore.

It's a Feelings Parade! Marjorie is energized from making a new friend, Dorian is mad from getting in trouble in school, and Corinne is just sleepy. She's heading for a nap. No surprise there.

Corinne's birthday has finally come around, and we have a pink cake for her. Jaron had to be at work, but the rest of the family is celebrating. A vuvuzela and a confetti cannon seem a little excessive for a home birthday party, but what do I know?

Corinne: "Ugh. This outfit and hairstyle fill me with ennui."

Uh, right. I don't know if you're using that word correctly now, but let's get you changed nonetheless. 

Here's Corinne. She's really cute, right? As a teen, she's shed her sweats, but she's still wearing really easy, simple clothes. Her new trait is perfectionist, so all the things she never does because she's busy napping will be higher quality, I guess. She wants to be a Joke Star...which has almost nothing to do with her personality as I imagine it.

Okay, sure.

Natalie: "Dorian, for the love of llamapegacorn, please come sit at the table so we can get a good family shot."
Dorian: "Nah, I'm good, Mom."

And that's the end of the chapter. Check back next time to see our heiress, Marjorie, grow up and eventually pick a spouse and continue the legacy, and see whether I ever complete anyone's aspiration. Thanks for reading! Check in with me at Boolprop or SiMania. Bye now!