I love the Norwegian Consumer Council

 They just dropped this video three days ago, and it's awesome.

Go consumer rights! Stuff that we've bought is ours, should be ours, just the way it was when we bought it..

Sprottenham spring sprouts

 Posted another chapter for the town of Sprottenham yesterday. The first month of spring is here (or there), and Rune and a bunch of other kids spent the day hanging out at the park.

Chapter 13.3 – March 2024 – The light of spring

Rune wanted to invite Elisa and Bodil to hang out with him in the park. Samira was also invited... and Elisa came along a little later.

Rune has taken a liking to Elisa and very much wants to be her best friend, for now. I have some ideas how it can turn out when they become teenagers, but it is of course not set in stone. Whatever happens will be up to them - either what they do autonomously or what they wish to do.

Tatiana Maria Vanderfjert is another kid they met at the park. She's still clinging on to winter, whereas everyone else is ready for spring.

Edny Sævik also showed up at the park to get some peace away from home.. Where many of the kids has become skeptical of Edny since her mother went to prison, Bodil has become her best friend to defend her when some of the other kids are acting mean...

Solvej and Patrik spent the day at the house caring for the toddlers and teaching them skills. Here is Patrik with Lilian who just learned to talk.

Solvej started a jam in to herself in the bedroom which may end up being a song about the joys of spring or something like that.

Solvejs friend and Bodils mother Leya is also pregnant for the third time.

Sprottenham updates

Yeah, so since last time I have switched to follow what happens in the town of Sprottenham, beginning at the start of the year 2024, where this story currently is at. The active family when I left this town behind to play other towns was the Jensen/Rasmussen household, which consists of Patrik C. Jensen and Solvej Rasmussen and their children, Rune (12) and the twins Lilian and Silvia (both 1 year and 9 months old).

So.. in the first chapter Chapter 13.1 – January 2024 – Patriks birthday it was, well, Patriks birthday. He aged up from a young adult to an adult, which means that he is now 35 years old.

Hooray for him! Yeah, I know, I already posted this on the EA forum much earlier without making a post here, but..  my motivation to make posts left and right isn't always there, so.. anyway.

His birthday party was nice (that isn't always a guarantuee..), people ate cake, danced and enjoyed themselves and his son Rune handed him a gift. It was just a collection of festival tickets, because that's what he had on hand, but Patrik really enjoyed the gift and said it was very meaningful to him, so all is good. ;)

Solvej also collected a lot of harvest from her plants in the greenhouse which she sold for 1708 simoleons, and was greatly awarded by the local chamber of commerce which gave her the new title of "fertilizer spreader". 

In the next update Chapter 13.2 – February 2024 – Tending to what you love Solvej needed to get out of the house to not go stir crazy, so while Rune was at school and Patrik at work she took the toddlers and went to the park to get some fresh air.

The small town of Sprottenhan is both usually very peaceful and safe, and the village had no issues helping out to watch after her youngest ones. In the background is now local resident Ada Dalhaug helping Lilian on the spring rider.

Silvia was being looked after by Leni-Dahl Blankblomst. A former colleague and good friend of Solvej.

Later Patrik and Rune joined them in the park, but since Patriks birthday he's been bothered by this feeling of getting older. He would frequently go to the bathroom to check his face for wrinkles and other signs of getting older, as well as thinking about where he was now in life.. should he change his career? Should he even... find a new partner? But no, he couldn't do that.. he loved his family to much, but the thoughts where all still there...

One of his bathroom visits ended badly when he found that it was occupied by Frigg Ås and her daughter Hoda. He wanted to have it to himself, so he attacked her out of the blue! Patrik has always had to struggle with his temper, and it looks like all his worries about getting older had already brought him close to a boiling point and this was the last straw.. how dare these too occupy this public toilet!

Solvej, Patrik and the twins were all unaware about what he did in the bathroom, and in spite of that and an instance where he was being flirted with by Chansa (standing in the background here to the left), the day ended well when he decided it was time for them to go home and get the toddlers in bed. Though he's probably not gonna make friends with Frigg for a while...

It's gonna be Runes birthday to after a couple of updates where he will become a teenager and a new interesting chapter will open up for the new boy. Probably many more kids will follow suit and this town too will start to see more teenagers.. but he will get the honour of being the first one*. :P

Until next time, hopefully soon enough. ;) 

* of the main active sims. All of Friggs children where already teenagers from the start, but I have never really had them as the active household.

A different kind of birthday....

 So... this chapter took a while longer to get ready for posting for a few reasons. One of them being the christmas holidays, of course. The other being that much more happened during this chapters session than I had anticipated and planned for...

This is Antons family tree that I made before playing through this chapter. At this point I pictured that this chapter would be a relatively straightforward one.

Helene helping Anton blowing out the candles, while his aunt Kathrine cheers in the background.

Guests are invited, candles are blown out, Anton ages up and gets an additional personality trait (inherited from parents or grandparents, as per my usual scheme), cake is eaten, people socialize and have fun, his parents show him his new bedroom, maybe read him a bedtime story, everybody goes to bed and falls asleep.. and good night..

Anton eating cake with his father and brother.

Helene reading Anton a bedtime story.
 

Of course, all of the above happened, but at one point things started to go wrong.. terribly wrong...

 

Chapter 19.2 – July 2024 – Antons Birthday (When the branches break) 

Also, it's a very long chapter, perhaps my longest one yet. So it is divided into three parts. In total its length is equivalent of 19 word document pages, not counting the images. After finishing the first part you'll also get a choice on whether you want to continue reading the part with a more cleaned up language, or the original as I first wrote it. The latter will require you to sign in and features more harsh/offensive language.

This is normally the point where I would say "Enjoy", but I'm not gonna say that here... instead, I will hope that you can find it interesting, if not necessarily enjoyable..

Also, regrettably, kind of, this will be the last chapter for the Sunset Valley story for a while, as my plan is (and was before this chapter) to shift my focus to the town of Sprottenham. I'm saying regrettably since this chapter leaves this family at such a low point, and given how slowly I sometimes update and that I have to cycle through one more town again after this, it may very well be a year or more until I continue this story line, but, well... that's just how its going to be.

Until next time.

(A day in the life of) the Kråkesen-Motorsen family

 Yeah, posted a new chapter. Since the last one I have been anticipating Antons birthday, but.. lets just say there are some technicalities that needs to be in order first, hence I played through a day in the life of this family while waiting for the opportunity to actually celebrate Antons birthday..

Chapter 19.1 – July 2024 - Everybody is fishing for something 

And this is the boy, young, happy and carefree. Soon enough everybody will cheer for him, just not today.

Hope you enjoy the chapter. See you later for something hopefully more festive. :P

The final part of the previous chapter..

 This one next update wasn't meant to be anything special.. just a quick one to finish the chapter and move on to the next one. And yeah, I should have.. or wanted to ideally have posted immediately after the other one, but well... I had to feel like making it first. So.. >_>

Anyway.. here it is.. 

Chapter 18.9 – June 2024 – The beaches we run to, part II

So yeah.. it begins, of course, where the other one ended, after Ranveig and Oliver Freddy went home after fishing on the beach (because Ranveig got tired and needed a nap)... and Oliver Freddy is, as usual, thinking about his science, so naturally he takes his moms pick up truck and drives up to the Landgraab Research Institute to do.. well, research.. ;)

First he does an experiment on the water melon he harvested at the beach, which fails and he only made a version of worse quality instead of improving it.. then he moves on to researching the DNA sample he took from Ranveig.. before he realizes he has done his research all wrong and needs to rethink his map...
After a while of research he got tired too and followed his mothers example to go home and take a nap as well..

At the main beach I had left Robert to his own devices, which meant that he only wanted to do two things - swimming and trying to befriend a whild horse, which meant that he would be completely neglecting his girlfriend Margrethe whom he was still on a date with...

She got fed up with that of course and left as she lied to him about heading for work..

I don't think the painting career has set work hours... I also didn't know teenagers could join the painting career, or any career for that matter, so I guess I learned something new here...

This left Robert alone on the beach trying to befriend the horse, concluding that he didn't understand anyone - horses, girls, parents... he wished for his father to be there, thinking he would've tamed the horse immediately..

Leaving Robert completely to his own devices might not have been the best decision as he ended up not going home when the curfew was up and instead made friends with this elderly woman named Holly, who challenged him to go swimming in the dark.

He ends up staying out until 5 in the morning.. Long enough for the lights to be on in the house when he returns because Ranveig, who went to bed early, is already up watching tv...

He tries to sneak past her hoping she won't notice him, but of course...

..busted! And I think maybe you can imagine the rest.. she just caught her 14 year old son returning home at five in the morning when she thought he was in bed asleep...

She was not very happy, but after he apologized she ended up only grounding him and banning him from playing video games for a day and not an entire week as she said at first..

Then she told him to go to bed to get some sleep and that he better not come down for neither breakfast nor lunch.... good night. ;)

And that ends it for this household for now, because for the next update I'll be switching to the household of Ranveigs brother Knut as his youngest son will celebrate his birthday and age up from toddler to child.

Sunset Valley, June 2024 - The students return for the summer and some new beginnings..

I'll give the chapter link first if you don't want to spoil the story by reading the summary below. 😉

Chapter 18.9 – June 2024 - The beaches we run to

It does deal with some health issues, but it is on overall a positive and optimistic chapter.

This chapter is also one of my more lengthy ones, so here are some stats before you decide if you to check it out:
Word count: 5518
Reading time: ~20-30 minutes or so.
Number of screenshots: 55

Yep this next chapter takes place in Sunset Valley and begins early in the morning with Oliver Freddy and Inge returning from university. It begins where the previous Sunset Valley chapter left off, inside the Holmesen-Fredriksen household where the parents Pia and Fredrik are still sleeping. dreaming their dreams of outer space or long days at the office helping patients through therapy and medication, yearning for that promotion still...

When Oliver Freddy returns home he finds that his dear mother Ranveig has finally renovated the old house at Mosquite Cove now that she has began therapy at the doctors' office and feels more on top in life...

Oliver Freddy makes them waffles for breakfast and encourages his younger brother Robert Bråge to do well in school and puts on his swim wear because he heard Ranveig saying they would be going to the beach later..

They aren't going to the beach, though. Atleast not yet...  Instead Ranveig does what she has already done with her younger sister Monica and her niece Lise Veronica (and herself). She takes Oliver Freddy to the doctors' office.. a new and stressful experience for him, but it will be for the greater good in the long run... and perhaps from now on no more putting on swim wear when the situation doesn't call for it...

Ranveig told Robert explicitly to watch the house while they were away, but pfft... that's lame, so he called his girlfriend Margrethe and after some playful arguing about what they were going to do they went to the beach to swim...

When they are finished at the doctor's office Ranveig takes Oliver Freddy to a beach as well, the one below the now abandoned Wolff Estate, since it is at a more secluded location. . Less people, less elements that can disturb the fish... 

She has for a while now had a wish to catch a death fish, but doesn't know which bait to use to get one, so after an unsuccessful trip to the graveyard earlier, she needs to experiment more to find the right bait..

Oliver Freddy, who is not very skilled at fishing, doesn't catch a single fish, but Ranveig gets two cat fish of perfect quality and a shark of great quality. Oliver Freddy is impressed by her catching such a big shark, but Ranveig is not.. it was only great and not perfect...

Before leaving to go back home Oliver Freddy autonomously asked Ranveig for a DNA sample to add to his collection, because, you know, science. He still has the idea, inspired by his aunt Monica and a book he read at university, that one day it should be possible to create a fusion between plants and humans.. so called 'plantsims'... 😉