The Clearys - Round 1

Starring:

Roisin Cleary, Elder Popularity Sim, LTW Have 20 Simultaneous Pet Best Friends

Aisling Cleary, Elder Romance Sim, LTW Have 20 Simultaneous Lovers

Colm Cleary, Adult Popularity Sim, LTW Have 20 Simultaneous Best Friends

Fiona Cleary, Teen Family Sim, LTW Raise 20 Puppies or Kittens

Caitlin Cleary, Teen Family Sim, LTW Graduate 3 Children From College


Tara Cleary, Toddler Romance Sim, LTW Grow Up Well


~*~*~*~*~*~

As the Clearys settled into their new home, it was very apparent to all of them that something was missing. With two grans, a da, and three kids, it seemed like the house should feel full, but instead, it felt emptier than ever because they all so desperately felt the absence of their ma. She'd been the glue that held the family together, always singing around the house and cheering up her daughters (and her husband, who needed it occasionally too). Now, she was gone, and the family felt empty, despite the addition of Colm's ma, Aisling, and his late wife's ma, Roisin, who had lost her husband and her daughter in one fell swoop.

Colm missed his wife as he stood in the kitchen of this new home, in this new town that was decidedly NOT good enough because his wife wasn't here. Not the town's fault, he knew, but it was so hard to get over the idea that he'd found his soul mate, and now she was gone.

Roisin was understandably also devastated, and kept bursting into tears at the thought of her daughter's life cut so tragically short...and just when she'd had a new baby. Roisin had known right away, even while she was still suffering the loss of her daughter, that she had to move in and help take care of the helpless infant.

The family didn't have much money left after their move, despite the fact that they'd combined their household incomes and decided to all move together. Roisin decided to start a garden to try to save the family a bit of money and also with the hopes that it might distract her a bit.

Meanwhile, Caitlin met Meadow Pederson, who was having a jog through the neighborhood. Caitlin wondered if everyone in Rosebud would be so welcoming. She hoped so.

Soon, Fiona joined her twin sister on the front lawn to meet Meadow and two other new neighbors: Santiago Villalobos and Yuuna Tanaka. They had both recently moved to Rosebud as well. The girls were relieved to find that their new neighbors seemed so kind.


Yuuna and Colm smustled a little bit on the front lawn. Colm did nae think Yuuna was a sexy mama.


Denise Jacquet, however, thought Santiago was a hottie. Perhaps there is romance in the future for Santiago.

Soon, everyone was having a great time smustling to the boom box Fiona had turned on in her room. The beautiful weather, the new friends, and the music drifting out of the upstairs window made everyone feel just a little bit more cheerful.


Fiona took time to snuggle with Tara. Tara even seemed sad, obviously wondering where their ma was. Tara hugged her extra close and promised in Tara's tiny ear to always watch out for her.


Caitlin, too, could sense Tara's sadness and gave her lots of extra love. Family was very important to both Caitlin and Fiona, and they took their duties as big sisters to tiny Tara seriously, especially since their ma was gone.


The girls were very close to one another and always had been, understandably. They'd done everything together since they were tiny little infants.

Caitlin spent some quality time with Tara that night, trying to teach her to talk. It was slow going, but Tara loved the family interaction.


Later, they even had time to get in a little bit of potty training before bedtime.


Roisin and Aisling shared a bedroom on the first floor, where they wouldn't have to climb the stairs every day. They settled in early, exhausted from the welcome wagon's visit.


The girls turned in next, to their new bedroom upstairs. It was tiny, and it didn't have a lot of things, but they knew their da worked hard to make it pretty, even splurging a bit to get them their own radio.


Colm stayed up a while yet to talk to his visitors and finally see them off for the night.

Exhausted, he collapsed into bed next to the quietly slumbering Tara, who had crashed out much earlier in the night.

Waking before the sun even rose, a rested Roisin went out to check on her tomato plant and met a sweet doggie with strange, glowing eyes. He seemed nice enough, and she patted him a few times before going back inside to rescue the awakening Tara from her crib.


Tara was so happy to see her Gran Roisin, she cooed happily as soon as she saw her. Fortunately, Roisin was able to steal her away out of the bedroom before waking Colm after his late night.


The family didn't know it yet, but this would soon become their normal routine. Gran Roisin and Gran Aisling would go to bed early, then get up before the sunrise to help take care of Tara and get breakfast on the table for Colm, Fiona, and Caitlin.



This also allowed Roisin and Aisling to get to know each other a bit better over early morning breakfasts.


Later that day, the whole house seemed to clear out. Tara went down for a nap, Colm and the girls had gone off to work and school respectively. That allowed Roisin to invite Santiago Villalobos over to hang out for a while. Roisin really appreciated the company, and it was nice to have a man her own age around so that she could talk to him. Santiago had also lost his wife many years before, so he understood a bit of what she was going through.


That afternoon, Vincente Villalobos came looking for his grandfather, and Fiona met him on the front lawn. She'd been dying to get an mp3 player, so she asked him if he would like to come along with her on an outing to Bluewater Village to browse the electronics.



They met a few other people there, but Fiona couldn't find what she was looking for. They also didn't have the best time because all Vincente wanted to do was sit and watch tv! Fiona ended up leaving without him. He seemed like far too serious a sim for her to really get along well with him.


Back at home, Gran Aisling had saved up enough to get Tara some smart milk to help her learn her skills more quickly. She was a bright girl anyway, but the smark milk helped. Colm worked with her on her walking...

...and her potty training.

Meanwhile, Gran Roisin gained some skills too, unclogging the toilet. With so many females in the house, all the bathrooms got tons of use. Colm was lucky to have a moment to get a shower.

Gran Roisin loved little Tara. She could see so much of her daughter in the little girl.


They quickly became best friends.

That meant both Tara and Roisin enjoyed it as Roisin finally potty trained Tara...


...helped teach her to talk...

...and taught her how to walk. Both Gran and Tara were delighted.


Unfortunately, Roisin didn't have such good luck with her plants. She supposed that with fall nearing its close and winter approaching, it was simply too cold outside to maintain her tomato plants. They didn't have enough money for a greenhouse yet, so she yanked up the dying plant and decided to start again when she could get a little hothouse.

That night, the girls came home in desperate need of some fun after a long day at school. They had tons of homework to do, but they took some time to do some mad dancing moves first.

Eventually, they got down to business with the help of their Grans, who started helping them learn good study skills.


Colm brought home a friend from work, but he didn't have much time to hang out with him as he had a lot of catching up to do with his daughters. Since their mother was gone, he thought it was especially important to spend as much time with them as he could.


That night, he and his daughter became best friends after he taught her an old Irish nursery rhyme. It was one that his wife used to sing to their daughter when she was still in the womb, and it seemed like Tara even recognized it.

Colm taught Tara her final skill that night, so now she could talk! This happy toddler was ready to grow up well.


Roisin decided to put her efforts towards trimming the front shrubs and bushes since her garden went the way of the ghost. After all, at least they were evergreens!


That night, Colm invited over some of their neighborhood friends and brought wee Tara up to her birthday cake. With a little help from her da, she blew out the candles.


And became a very happy child!!!


They smustled the night away. Even Tara smustled out on the front lawn. They all went to bed very early that night, exhausted from all that partying!


Early the next morning, Fiona and Caitlin asked their grans for homework help again...they really wanted to get their grades up. Roisin and Aisling happily complied, and the girls got done just in time to get some breakfast and head out to school.



Tara was also up at the crack of dawn, jumproping her heart out. She had so much energy, she never seemed to tire out from all that fun rope skipping!

After a nice family breakfast prepared by Gran Aisling, they all headed off - Colm to work, Fiona and Caitlin and Tara to school.


Fiona decided to try a musical instrument in school...

But it didn't work out very well for her. The worst part was that she knew they didn't have the money to buy a replacement cello. Fortunately, her dad wasn't upset with her...just asked her to be careful next time.

While the girls and their da were away, Aisling and Roisin got more bonding time while watching The Yummy Channel. Aisling was really starting to get to be a great cook!


That afternoon, Fiona brought home an A+ report card. She was so excited, she jumped up and down and cheered out loud. Caitlin was not as excited...it turned out she'd misplaced some of her homework the night before in the party confusion and didn't improve her grades. She still had a strong B, though, so she knew she could still bring her grade up before finals.


That night, Roisin invited over her friend Santiago Villalobos again, and he and Roisin and the girls had some fun dancing the smustle for a while.


Colm came home with a promotion...

...and Tara came home with a Player of the Year award and $150! It was a very good day for Da and the youngest Cleary.

Fiona rewarded Tara for doing so well by reading her a story. Tara still loved it as much as she did as a toddler.


And that night, Colm and Tara played a rousing game of red hands, strengthening their bond even more. For once, Colm began to think that maybe they COULD make it, after all, that maybe Rosebud could help all of them heal after their loss.

With some of his promotion money, Colm splurged and treated the girls to a microphone and amp, and they amused themselves for hours singing and reciting poetry into the mic, while Tara jeered them good-naturedly from the floor.


Colm headed off to work as a spelunker in his new work outfit, and he couldn't help but smile as he left his crazy but wonderful family behind.


Will Fiona and Caitlin really get their grades high and score some college scholarships? Will Tara grow into as lovely a teen as her big sisters? Will Colm be able to support them all and possibly find love again? We'll see, but first, let's check in with the Villalobos family...

~*~*~*~*~

Scoring

Six new sims: 6

Net worth to be added to the neighborhood total: $33,951


[[Author notes: Not much to say for this round other than that I have totally fallen in love with Roisin and the twins. Those girls are so adorable, and I can't seem to get their skill points up because they're so busy trying to help out with Tara and keep all their needs up. I got used to dividing the labor a bit better with this many sims in the house, which was nice, though I don't like not being able to give individual sims the attention I'd like to. Also, all three girls and Roisin kept rolling wants to adopt a puppy or kitten the whole round, but I was like...aw hellz naw, y'all, there's no way I can do that the first time I ever play a six-person household. So the puppy or kitten will have to wait until a grandparent dies or Tara becomes a teen, whichever comes first. I'm not even going to attempt to achieve the LTWs for Roisin and Aisling because holymotherofgod, that's just craziness. Maybe once the teens move out, I'll start on it, but for now, it was all I could do simply to keep up, keep them all in the green, and occasionally build a skill or two. These poor G1 simmies, they get the crappiest attention.

Also, randomly, I love Caitlin's hair color, and I think Colm looks way meaner in the game than he was in CAS. Hrm. Oh well. ]]