Thérèse Remarries

After Thérèse and Sebastian's daughter Isabelle Vanderburg was born, all that remained was for him to finally break it off with his previous girlfriend, tattoo artist Candace Roberts (the game's creation, not Candace Halloran by another name):

Looks like that went well.

Anyway, Sebastian proposed to Thérèse on the balcony outside their bedroom:

Thérèse trying out a few looks for her wedding (I went with the last hairstyle and necklace):

The wedding in their backyard:

Sebastian's father (both Sebastian's parents are "Leader of the Free World" as their career) set off fireworks at the end of the vows:

The dancing lasted until dawn:

Left to right is Francie dancing with her mother, Sebastian's parents, Catarina and Renauld, dancing together, and on the far right is Sebastian dancing with baby Isabella.

Here's a shot of Francie as a teenager.  She has her father's freckles but thankfully most of the rest of her looks came from her mother:

This is just one of those random events where Francie and her high school boyfriend, Jake Preston, were hanging out at one of Hidden Valley's many lodges and having a pillow fight when April showed up and started playing her guitar.  The Sims seemed to really like her music, but I personally am not sold on her socks with sandals:

Just a look at Isabella playing in her bedroom:

Isabelle will have it all, being born into such wealth, privilege and talent.  Francie is the more interesting character, though, and I'll probably follow her.

Thérèse Moves On

I started off playing with the Patterson household and then switched to the Caines, finding Anthony and Thérèse already hating the sight of one another, and Thérèse having found a new best friend in Sebastian Vanderburg, the only son of the local royal family and a would-be international super spy, currently working for the local police department.  After a few friendly visits where Thérèse would cry on his shoulder, they visited a club together and she took a chance and held his hand.  Their outing became romantic (see the hearts?):

 They watched the stairs, then kissed:

Sebastian, not under my control, confessed to Thérèse that he was attracted to her:

Since things weren't going too well at her home, they went back to the Hidden Springs Lodge where they'd hung out back when they were just friends.  Trouble is, Sebastian, being a prince, is also a celebrity, so any public dates they have include his personal paparazzo:

Enough was enough: Thérèse asked Anthony for a divorce (yes, Anthony needed a shower):

Interestingly enough, neither of them received a negative moodlet from the end of their marriage.  Neither did Francie, possibly because Thérèse took her along when she left the itty-bitty Caine household for Sebastian's place:

Seriously, she was way out of Anthony's league from the start.

That's teen Françoise Arsenault on the right, exercising with her mum (she took Thérèse's maiden name after she spontaneously decided -- during a teenage mood swing -- to drop Anthony as a friend).  Francie picked up the hot-headed trait when she aged up and I left it because it seemed probable, given the kind of childhood she had.

Thérèse likes to exercise, but after this aerobics session, an after-effect of those nights at the lodge came to her attention;

She told Sebastian, who was pleased:

and Francie, who was less so, and picked a fight:

though they made up quickly enough when Francie decided that she wanted to touch Thérèse's tummy:

Finally, just a random shot of a night out in Hidden Springs.  Left to right are teenage Robin, Thérèse playing piano, Deanna the cook, Francie on her mobile, Sebastian's mother in the long dress in the background, Sebastian by the window, and Elizabeth eating alone and watching Thérèse play.

I haven't paid too much attention to the Pattersons, but the game keeps me updated on their progress.  John and Elly split up.  He remarried twice more, but neither marriage lasted; Elly never remarried.  Both have since died.  Before the Patter-split, Mike, Deanna and the kids moved out to their own place and then Deanna left because there weren't enough beds at the new house for all of them.  She moved back in after the kids had moved out.  Meredith wound up dating the brother of April's boyfriend and of Robin's boyfriend (I could see this happening if the strip had continued, just to keep everyone close together).  April's boyfriend moved into the Pattermanse and then he and April got their own place, which meant that Elizabeth wound up with the Pattermanse all to herself.  She married her girlfriend, Cassidy Earthsong, and they had a daughter, who is pale green like Cassidy.

Meet the Caines...Quick, before they're gone!

I was playing with the Patterson family for ages but just couldn't seem to connect any of them to the Caines, so finally changed households to see what was up.  I found Anthony at home with Francie and thinking about calling it a night at 7 PM:

I found Thérèse at a local hotspot, jamming with friends.  Without any input from me, she'd already reached level 6 in her piano skill and had made best friends with Sebastian Vanderburg, the "prince" of Hidden Springs (he's the blond at the front):

Anthony received an invitation to a party being thrown by John Patterson, so called a sitter for Francie, donned his best suit and hurried to the Pattermanse in hopes of seeing Elizabeth.  Alas, Elizabeth was not there.  Nor were Elly, Mike, Dee, April or the grandkids.  In fact, Anthony was the only male guest.  All the other attendees were young women.  Gee, John threw this party, you say?  Anthony did his best to impress John:

When John wasn't looking, Anthony went upstairs and got into Elizabeth's bed:

Back at home, Thérèse had returned and spontaneously started reading to Francie:

The next day, Anthony mocked her ambition and she reacted badly:

She followed him to the bathroom and insulted him:

and  told him how humiliated she felt:

Anthony mocked her cleverness:

Thérèse rang Sebastian and they met at the Hidden Springs lodge, where she spent the night.

Funny stuff

Mike was writing Stone Season when I moved him using the moveobjectson cheat and his arms did this:

Without any prompting from me, Elly and Mike went to the library.  Has Sims 3 never read For Better or For Worse?!

Elly set herself on fire trying to become an inventor:

Don't worry, Mike was on-hand with a fire extinguisher.  I was very impressed, as his laptop was in that same room and yet his inclination was to save his mother!

Not that she looks at all grateful:

Here's Thérèse taking her daughter Isabelle for a walk:

Might be a little problem with that stroller.  In case you're wondering about Isabelle, read on...

Elizabeth's Room and April's Room

Elizabeth's room was always messy.  I've done my best, but lack Sims clutter objects to make it quite as bad as this:

(Actually, it's not that bad.  The bed needs making and that's about it.  But the official site says it's messy, so that's the word of god on this one.)

Here's my take: 

My previous post explains the reason for the mirror image along the far wall: the floor plan didn't include stairs to the upper bedrooms, and once the stairs were added in, they blocked off the door to Elizabeth's room if I'd kept it in its original location, so I flipped this side of the room.

Yes, the colour scheme includes teal and lavender.  How could it not?  What I also thought about the room was that it was probably kept the way Elizabeth had left it when she moved away to Nippissing years earlier, so still has some toys and posters left over from high school.

Look: carefully placed stacks of books and a pair of running shoes just to look sort-of messy.  I'm sure Lynn Johnston intended the lines she drew on the floor plan to indicate a wardrobe, but they looked more like a clothes rack, so I've used a clothes rack:

Liz scored the bedroom with a small en suite, which is why she was forced to give it up to Mike and Deanna.  Here's a bird's eye view of her bathroom and the master bathroom:

April's room:

April was aged about 10 when that was drawn for the Find Ned game in or around 2001, but I don't know of any more recent views of her room other than the sequence of strips where John appeared to threaten her with violence if she didn't stop doing her homework and come downstairs for dinner.  So I've also kept April's room looking relatively child-like:

There's the laptop she was using to do her homework.  It acts like a magnet for other Sims, though, and I keep finding them in her room playing computer games.  At least she has some space to practise her guitar.