The Hinckley Legacy, Chapter 16:Reflections on an Era

The Hinckley Legacy, Chapter 16:Reflections on an Era

Written by: hippielayla86

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Hinckley Legacy for Chapter 16: Reflections on an Era!

I want to first thank you all for your patience in waiting for this chapter! The holiday season seemed to keep me busier for

much longer this year sucking up all of my freetime, therefore postponing the chapter. And then once I finished the chapter

back in May the exchange went on the fritz with that weird “Error Code 5” issue, so I needed to find a new method for

uploading. That's when I found a tutorial by pettech68 – find the link to the tutorial on my LJ page -- which led me to uploading in this format you're seeing right now! So long story short, thanks

so much for holding out for the next chapter :)

Since there have been so many months in between chapters, this chapter will give you first a quick update on who's who, and a

look into the lives of the generation 5 spares...

We are currently in the 6th generation of the Hinckley family, Lana (5th generation's heiress) and Don's children. Pictured above is Lana, who has

recently been quite consumed with books after having a children's book she wrote published. She is a sweet & thoughtful family sim, who wants nothing more in life than to meet her future grandchildren (she wants 6 of them at the

very least). While she's away from home she is a Predestigator in the Entertainment career, although she doesn't go to work often since she has 5

children. Next up we have Don...

Don is Lana's husband. The couple met while they were both attending university after Lana's traumatic break up with her first real boyfriend, Hunter. Don and Lana were just friends at first, Don was Lana's shoulder to cry on. Near the end of Lana's senior year, Don decided to take a leap of faith and follow his heart revealing to Lana that he cared for her much more than just as a friend. Once he professed his true feelings there was no turning back. The two have been a very loving couple ever since.

Don's desires in life are to be able to provide financially for his family. In this aspect he has been very successful. By reaching the top of the criminal

career track, Don has also achieved his lifetime want. His next desire is to actually go into entertainment like his wife, but we'll have to wait to see what he chooses. Especially since he has his eyes set on restoring the old junker

in the garage.

Lana and Don's eldest child is Edmund aka Ed (on the right). He has recently had a birthday, and has found love with his childhood friend Nicole/Nikki/Nicky. He and Nikki are both very into music and dance related activities. They are partners on the school dance team.

Ed is a family sim, who also has a romantic side (secondary aspiration is romance). He's very quick witted, and loves a good joke.

Their oldest daughter is Cassandra or as everyone refers to her, Cass. Her birthday is coming up within the next couple of days. Her favorite pastimes include playing her violin and reading a good book. She has most recently gotten a new bedroom in which she chose her own wallpaper and decorations. Her teenage birthday is only a few days away.

Their middle child is Corin. He is quite a precocious child, who loves to be the center of attention. Once bedtime hits, you can find him avoiding sleep and playing with his favorite toy horse.

Corin is well known among his Aunts and Uncles, seeking out their attention so that he can share gardening tips with them. Corin's predestined hobby is nature.

The youngest two children are twins Bree and Darrin. Being infants, they don't really have distinct personalities yet. ;) Although, you may have noticed a naming theme for this generation, in that all of the children are named after characters in the Chronicles of Narnia, primarily from The Horse and His Boy while Cass is named after Prince Caspian. I had just finished those two books and decided on the spur of the moment to do a little naming theme.

I also want to mention that this chapter focuses a lot on Lana's sisters and brother and their families, but there will be a main family update at the end of the chapter. And now that you're all caught up with the main family, I'll hand the narration over to Lana.

---Please note that if I have anything to add to a picture, I will add it at the bottom

of the slide, in italics underneath "---" :) Enjoy the chapter!

Oh man, I hope we just have poor lighting in here...

Oh! Hello everyone... um, you sort of caught me off guard. I'm just finishing up putting on my face, you see I've been invited over to Lacey and Sam's for my nephew Gabriel's birthday party tonight.... and I guess I got a bit carried away with my outfit and make up. I... well I've never worn this dress and I bought it ages ago, and I figured you're only young once.

I guess I'm just nervous about my own birthday... I'm not ready to put away or give away my current wardrobe... I don't want to be told that I 'need to dress my age.' I just simply don't feel as old as the calendar* is telling me....

But, I shouldn't bother you with such things. I think I'm just over-reacting. I better get headed to that party.

-----*Lana's birthday to age to an elder is only 2 sim days away. I'm simply not ready

to see her as an elder, and she isn't ready either.

When I arrived at Lacey's she was feeding Gabriel some formula before the rest of the guests got there. She handed Gabe over to Sam and came over to greet me.

"Lana! I'm so glad you made it!"

" Oh sweety," Lacey exclaimed as she ran over, "Look at you! You look amazing!"

Blushing, but flattered I responded, "Oh you're too much, but thank you!"

"I simply love that dress! How come everytime I see you, you're dressed to the nine, how do you do it?"

I thought about the most modest response for a moment before saying, "Well, now that I'm done writing my book, I have a lot of free time to go shopping again."

"I bet! I just read the copy you gave us to Gabe for the first time today. He was smiling the whole time, so cute."

They like my book! "Thank you so much, I'm glad you both liked it."

--- Dad, Leah, Ivy, Lacey's prof from uni Katy (Cosmos) Beasley can be seen in the

background.

After Lacey finished welcoming everyone to the party, my sister's family gathered around Gabe's birthday cake. I quickly snapped the picture above which I simply love, my brother in law, Sam looks so proud to be helping his son with his birthday.

Lacey told me that he's been asking her about having more children. She's a bit reluctant because she wants to start another business, this one at home.

She's worried that another child mixed with another business will strain their marriage... I told her not to worry so much, but maybe wait a few years. I really hope they both get what they want soon. I love having more neices and nephews!

Gabe is such a cute little boy. He looks a lot like Mom with his red hair... he's even got Mom and Lacey's nose. I wonder if as he gets older he'll start to look more like his father.

Little Gabe was soon ready to go to bed, but the party didn't end there. Everyone ended up having a great time, chatting the night away until Dad ushered us all out of their house. We had gotten carried away and hadn't noticed Sam had fallen asleep in his chair.

My little sister Lizzie sent us a letter today in the mail. It turns out she had quite a bit of wonderful news...

"Dear sis, I don't even know where to begin, life is so good right now! First,

it's the last semester of our senior year. All of my professors love me, I'm acing all of my tests, and the best news is that I made the Dean's list again!"

"Second, I am so madly in love with Orion, I simply don't know what to do with myself! He treats me like an angel -- makes me dinner, gives me foot rubs, cleans the house, and even does the laundry! And you know how much I hate doing the laundry... Since he's finished his course work up before me, he's trying to make my last semester as stress free as he can. But guess what, I have some even bigger news!"

"Orion and I are engaged! He proposed to me Tuesday night over dinner. You should see the ring it's simply stunning! It's an emerald cut solitaire with a white gold band. We immediately started to talk wedding plans and have realized that neither of us really want a big wedding, and I was really worried to tell everyone, so I tested the water first with Mom. It ended up that she was actually really understanding about us not wanting to make a big fuss over it. She was just shocked that Orion didn't want to invite the whole neighborhood to it*.

---- *Orion is a popularity sim, so him not wanting to throw a wedding party

immediately after he proposed was sort of a shocker to me! I took it as a sign, and Lizzie and Orion will have a private ceremony once they return from college.

I hate to cut this short, but I've got class in ten minutes so I've got to get going...

With love, Lizzie"

I am so excited for Lizzie, I just know she and Orion will be so happy together!

And since that letter has brought you up to date with Lizzie, I thought it might be a good time to bring you up to speed with the Langeraks -- my eldest sister Leah's family.

Since I've last told you about them, Paul, their youngest son has a had a few birthdays. Here's a picture from Paul's birthday 3 years ago. Little Paul is being held by his sister Natalie while his Mom and brother Nova look on.

Right before my twin neices left for college, Leah and Kaylynn arranged for a family picture. You probably all know Leah's family, but if not, I'll name them off from left to right back to front: Their friend and bigfoot Armando, little Paul (he's the toddler) being held by his mother Leah, Maia, Natalie and their cat Bailey, and in the front are Nova and Kaylynn.

My twin nieces have started attending SSU. They currently live with their Aunt Lizzie and Orion.

Once Natalie (seen above) and Maia moved in with Lizzie, they started a garden. A very successful garden which merited them a present of a well from the garden club. Natalie was very quick to investigate the well, and made a wish to find true love.

She was an introverted knowledge minded teen, who hadn't spent anytime finding love. So, she figured she could use a little help from the well...

The well did bring her a good match in personality, and a possible best friend in Elliot. But there was to be no true love* since Elliot is Natalie's Great Uncle... he's one of my cousins. Poor girl, I hope she finds love soon.

--- *I am very glad I was paying attention when the well produced Elliot as

Natalie's true love. I was quick enough to cancel the kiss interaction and prevent any incest! Yikes!

Shortly after the twins moved in it was time for Lizzie and Orion's graduation. They both ended up getting top honors, and are planning to move back home with Mom and Dad. Hopefully they won't find them as much of an interference in their lives as Don and I had.

Lizzie and Orion promptly moved back in with Mom and Dad upon leaving college. And started to settle some unfinished business...

As a child, Lizzie was haunted numerous times by our ancestors, so she decided that with her money she earned with scholarships to purchase a garden for our ancestors to finally have a resting place worthy of them.

Once construction was finished for the mausoleum she took all of the urns and portraits to the gardens.

--- Since the main legacy family doesn't live with Amelie and Peter anymore, I

didn't see a point in having all of the ghosts on the lot slowing the game down. So Lizzie purchased the community lot that comes with Mansion and Garden Stuff and all of the Hinckley ghosts moved there. I included this picture mostly because I thought it was cute that Madison and George were waving to one another as they left the legacy lot.

The following day, Orion and Lizzie got married. They choose to just have Mom and Dad present at the ceremony. Since we didn't get to go, Mom sent me some pictures right away.

Aren't they an adorable couple?

Mom also told me that she and Dad made themselves scarce after the ceremony, but couldn't help but hear some private celebrations being started in Lizzie and Orion's room....

Apparently their private festivities ended up with a pregnancy for Lizzie. She and Orion are currently expecting twins.

The next few months flew by and before we knew it Lizzie was giving birth to twins. Their first born is Deanna, a beautiful girl with dark hair and Lizzie's eyes.

Deanna's twin is Derek, he also has dark hair and Lizzie's eyes. Mom and Dad were the ones to call me, they are so happy to have grandbabies living with them again.

Mom sent me this hilarious picture along with Deanna and Derek's birthday pictures the other day. All of the cats in the household, our little Risa's parent's Coda and Fante, and her brother Toby can often be found surrounding little Deanna's crib protectively during the night, too funny!

Speaking of the birthday pictures, here they are. You can see that Dad helped Deanna with her cake while Mom helped Derek blow out his candles. It's so sweet of Lizzie and Orion to let Mom and Dad help out so much.

The twins have aged into charming young tots who enjoy making messes for their Grandpa and Grandma to clean up... and just think I have Bree and Darren who will be their age pretty soon!

Moving right along to Luke's family... I know it's been a while, but you may recognize the young boy on the left of this picture, but if you don't this is a picture of my nephews Gavin and Emmett. They are Luke and Ivy's youngest children. Ivy finds her two sons hanging out together constantly, surprisingly the two of them get along really well.

Luke and Ivy have raised quite an intelligent and creative young lady in their eldest, Loralie. She is already painting like a young Monet, and with her birthday coming up soon they had better watch out so as she doesn't paint images of love into the minds of the young men who may pursue her!

Cass is the one to change the focus this time since it turns out that lately my little Cass has been a social butterfly. Apparently she and her cousin Paul (Leah's son) have orchestra together now and spent half of the class today arguing about who was better at chess.

Cass, wanting to prove that she was better ended up going home with Paul to challenge him to a game. But during the game Cass discovered that Paul had ulterior motives.

"So Cass, I was wondering if you could listen to a solo that I've been working on?"

"I suppose, but this better not be a gimmick to get out of me beating you at chess!"

"Nah, chess was actually the trick to get you to listen to my playing..." Paul said sheepishly.

Cass laughed and responded, "You know, you're a funny kid! All you had to do was say that you wanted to play a duet with me or something and I would've come over anyway. You didn't have to challenge me to a game of chess."

"Oh" Paul said with a smile spreading across his face, "Awesome, do you want to now?"

"Of course, show me the way"

Then Paul led Cass to his shared bedroom with Nova where he kept his violin and played her the solo he had been working on. Cass stood and listened to him, every once in a while he would stumble on a passage and Cass took note each time.

"So... be honest, whatdya think?" Paul asked nervously.

"All in all a very good effort, and for someone who doesn't take lessons, impressive. Although you could definitely use improvement. I can totally tell that you would benefit from some lessons..." Cass said with a sly smile.

"But who would give me lessons?" Paul questioned.

"Well me of course!" Cass said recommending herself as she puffed out her chest. At this Paul laughed.

"You? Well, I guess that would make sense. You are first chair afterall."

The two continued this conversation for a while, and ended up agreeing that Paul should take lessons from Cass.

Leah's eldest son Nova is continuing to grow into a charming young man. He's told his mothers that they had better be planning a big party for their upcoming birthdays. He of course wants to meet some girls. I don't think he's quite thought it through that they'll all be related to him!

--- Nova is a popularity sim, and wants to throw a birthday party of course. He's in

luck because both of his mothers are planning a big shindig for their transition to elders.

It turned out Nova got his wish. His mothers did end up throwing a party for their birthdays and of course we were all invited.

The best part about the party for me was that it was comforting to see my sister and her wife so calm. I'm getting very nervous for my milestone of a birthday myself, so its nice to have some older sibling getting there before me.

When I finally got the flirting couple apart from each other and started talking to Leah one on one, I asked her,

"Leah, how can you be so calm? If I were you I'd be all nerves!"

"It's simple - I'm very happy and content with my life. I've got a wonderful wife, and four wonderful children who are growing up so well. It's just the natural progression of life for me to get older. Plus, with Maia and Natalie cruising through college I should have some grandchildren soon!"

"I guess I can see where you're coming from..."

I've never told anyone, but my biggest want in life is to see my grandchildren*... now that Leah put it that way, I guess I've looking forward to my 50th birthday all my life! Haha, imagine that...

"Hey, lets get out back before my cake starts a forest fire!" - Leah joked grabbing me by the hand leading me to her back yard.

--- *Lana's LTW is to have 6 grandchildren.

Leah wasn't joking about the candles! And I wasn't surprised to see her soaking up all of the attention and teasing shouts.

"Hey old lady, get a move on it before the cake melts away!" - Kaylynn, Leah's wife, teased.

"Yeah Mom, blow 'em out before the fire department shows up." - Maia said as she giggled.

Leah just smiled as she bent to blow out the candles.

"Don't worry ladies and gents, these old bones have enough energy in them to chase you all off." - Leah said back as she turned to age.

It's been a few weeks and Leah has settled well into her "golden years." Kaylynn has done a lot less taunting seeing as her own birthday is only days away. Leah has even been considering retiring from her job serving as the city mayor so that she can spend more time with Nova and Paul before they get too old and move out for college just like the twins.

I just got off the phone with Liza... and Mom and Dad are no longer with us.

Liza told me that Mom went first this morning while tending to the garden.

And old grimmy came back that night to take Dad away right after he stepped out of the car from work.

--- And now I'll narrate for the next few slides.

Peter and Amelie were one of my favorite couples. Amelie was the fourth generation's heiress being the most attractive of the two red heads of that generation. She was originally a pleasure sim during her teen years, loving to dance with her father Gavin. But once she reached college, her personality changed and she became a romance sim -- although one would never know it. She was both a dedicated mother and wife, who doted on her grandchildren contentedly in her elder years.

Peter was Amelie's husband, a local bartender. The couple was introduced to each other by Amelie's grandmother Madison. Peter was a popularity sim who doted on his wife, even though he always had a thing for blondes. He was a very successful sim, gaining his LTW early on by becoming the General of Pleasantview's armed forces.

These two will both be greatly missed by me... And their many grandchildren. Both Derek and Deanna toddled out to the front porch to watch as their grandpa left them.

Life must go on though, and it is certainly continuing, and continuing well for Lacey and Sam. Lacey has gotten her home business in which they sell items that Sam crafts at the pottery wheel, and collectible items great for home and garden.

And if you take a look at Lacey's belly, you can see that Sam is on his way to getting his wish of another child. Sam and Lacey are quickly turning into one of my favorite families to play.

The next simday, Sam and Lacey welcomed their second child, a beautiful girl they named Shauna. She, like her older brother Gabe, also has her grandparents' red hair.

Shortly after it was Shauna's birthday. Sam took her to her cake while her mother and brother cheered her on.

Shauna grew into a very cute toddler, and as you can see, she and her brother both look a lot like their mother only with red hair.

A few simdays later, Sam and Lacey had their third and final child, a daughter named Cynthia, Cindy for short. She is their first child to have blonde hair. She is also currently a toddler, but this is the most recent picture I have of her.

A few more simdays pass and Gabe, their eldest, aged into a geeky teen. I think he's quite adorable, and you can expect to see him once we get to the main family update.

Gabe wasn't the only one with a birthday. Liza and Orion's twins, Deanna and Derek have also had birthdays. Deanna is a fashionista, while Derek is more concerned with figuring out how mechanical objects work. Despite their differences, they are very close friends.

Now here's a another set of cousins to start off Luke and Ivy's update, that's full of surprises. First, everything started off normally, Emmet (pictured above on the left) had his birthday, and Loralie (also pictured above) was to have her birthday next.

But before that happened, Ivy had an accident with pesticides! Yes, Ivy, a sim with a quite fitting name for a plant, became a plantsim. Now I had already decided that 3 kids was enough for Ivy and Luke, but I decided to let Ivy have a plantbaby.

You can imagine my reaction when she had twins, I definitely said out loud and with a volume, "WHAT?!" out of the blue while playing... this normally would be fine, but my boyfriend had a friend over. Keep in mind I hadn't said anything at that point for about a half hour... pretty humorous. Anyway, the twin girls were named without much imagination (though I think the names are cute) Lily (in the front of the picture) and Daisy. And the family loves them.

The other good news is that Luke has a fear of Ivy being cured from plantsimism, which isn't surprising seeing as the couple are both knowledge sims.

The next event in the family was Loralie's birthday, and shortly after her new boyfriend. She got lucky and the gypsy gave her a good blind date for her $3,500. Her boyfriend Dylan is a family sim, the son of Remington the maid and his random CAS wife in my game. The two of them have 3 bolt chemistry since Loralie is a fortune sim, and loves charismatic blondes, while her boyfriend loves creative girls with black hair. They're a very cute couple!

Right when I thought things were getting back to normal -- Gavin, the newly teen knowledge sim got abducted by aliens!

When he got back from outerspace, both his parents cheered the aliens, while his older sister laughed her head off. You see, Loralie being a fortune sim, and a sim with only 3 nice points isn't very sensitive when it comes to embarassing things her siblings do.

Loralie eventually stopped laughing for long enough to give her brother a hug. Gavin was very relieved to be home.

And also shocked at seeing his Father embracing a strange green woman -- he hadn't seen his Mom as a plantsim yet.

Soon Daisy and...

Lily grew into adults, and moved out. Daisy is a family sim who immediately wanted her plant sister to not be a plant anymore, and Lily was a romance sim who immediately wanted to woohoo.

But before doing so, Emmet insisted on taking a family picture. Ordered from Left to Right, Front to Back: Gavin, Loralie, Ivy, Luke (now as an elder), Lily and Daisy.

And now ladies and gentlemen, it is time to take the second half of the chapter to update on Lana's family, at the main household! I will also be handing the narration back over to Lana :)

As I stood there holding Darrin in my arms, staring at my cake and all of its many candles, I decided then what I had been putting off. Darrin, our fourth child, just as I was my Mother's fourth child, would be my heir. I love all my children so much that I hadn't been able to decide, and I think reasoning is perfect, I hope the rest of my children understand... I think I should wait a while to tell everyone though.

After I put Darrin down for a nap, I went back to the kitchen, to the birthday party being held for me. All of my siblings were there, but I was still nervous until I remembered what Leah had said to me on her birthday, "I've lived a good life... plus think about the future grandkids."

It seemed a bit silly to be thinking about grandkids while my own children were still infants, but this thought is what got me to complete the motions...

I quickly blew out all of the candles (thank goodness they all went out, how embarrassing if they hadn't!) and turned to face the inevitable. It was my turn to pass on the torch in my family, it was my turn to grow up.

After changing I came back out into the kitchen where Don pulled me in for a kiss.

"Don, be honest, how do I look?" I asked nervously. "Darling, you look wonderful!" he said without hesitation and with love

in his eyes.

Cass quickly butted in and asked for a dance with her Daddy which gave me a chance to sit down with my sons and have some cake. I'm glad that Don still thinks I'm pretty, but I'm just not sure about this white hair myself... I think I need to book a hair appointment.

Once we finished eating some cake, Ed came over to me.

"Hey Mom, happy birthday!" Ed said as he hugged me.

"Thank you dear"- Leah was right, it's only the natural progression to life to grow older and let your children have the spotlight.

My birthday wasn't the only one to be celebrated today though, today is also Darrin and Bree's birthdays. While Don and I went to go grab the twins, Cass, Ed and Corin continued to entertain our guests.

Don and I helped our twins to their cakes, they both helped blow out their candles, and then both aged up beautifully.

A few days have passed since the party, I'm still not sure about my hair, and I still haven't told anyone about my decision to make Darrin my heir. I just don't know when to do it, I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or expectations.

So, you've probably noticed my hair... well, I'm not a grandma yet, so I shouldn't look like one, so they grey is out! Don't be fooled though, the moment there's a grandbaby I'll stop dying it.

In more practical news, I'm really starting to settle into my golden years. Life has been much more relaxing, and I've been finding time to sit down and read the paper everyday. I had been rushing around so much before that I hadn't gotten the chance to really have alone time.

In my new found "me-time" Don has been helping more with the twins. Just tonight, Don sat down with Darrin, said "Dad" twice and got Darrin to speak in no time! We've been noticing that Darrin is much more outgoing than Bree, while quiet Bree seems to get into more trouble.

It's nice to see the two of them being self sufficient, and it's also nice that Darrin is a deep sleeper meaning Bree can still play in their room while her brother takes a nap.

Bree and Darrin are reminding me a lot of the pictures I used to see of Luke and Lacey as children. They are really good pals, and I hope they can continue to be as they get older.

Don has been doing a lot of thinking lately about what he wants to do next with his life. He can't decide if he should follow his wallet and continue on with his new position in the entertainment career, or if he should pursue a new career in education.

While he's making his decision he spends a lot of time on the computer giving financial advising to his clients. I wonder what they would do if they knew everyday at home at work for Don is a very casual Friday.

Don and I have talked it over, and have decided that it's time to get Ed, Cass and Corin into the private school I went to as a child.

"Mr. Jitmatsuku*, it is a pleasure to meet you, my name is Edmund Hinckley." --- *That's definitely not the right spelling! lol, there's no way I'm remembering that

off the top of my head.

"Nice to meet you Edmund, are your parents in? They've requested that I come to your house for dinner to discuss getting you and your siblings into my school."

"Yes sir, my Mother is in, she is making dinner, but my father is at work so he's asked me to take his place in giving you a tour of our house while Mom makes you our family favorite, salmon and rice pilaf -- my late Grandfather Peter's recipe. Would you like to come in and see our home?"

"Oh, what initiative on your part, a tour of your home would be lovely while we're waiting on dinner.”

I was indeed in the kitchen preparing the salmon just the way my father had taught me. I can remember perfectly how much the headmaster had liked it when Dad made it, I figured I'd stick with what worked. I was a bit reluctant to have the headmaster over while Don was at work at first, but Ed is certainly stepping up to the task, I can't help to think what a wonderful husband and father he'll make some day. I really do hope that he and Nikki end up together some day...

The tour went off without a hitch! You could see the look of satisfaction in Ed's eyes as he continued to chat with Korey -- the headmaster insisted I use his first name.

"I must say Mrs. Hinckley, that this is the best dinner I've had in a long time. Being an old bachelor, I've never really gotten the benefits of a home cooked meal. Now Ed, what were you saying about your ballet class?"

"Well sir, I was wondering if my current dance partner could continue to be my partner at your institution." -- Ed was a bit hesitant, fearing that Korey would say no. But, the headmaster seemed to be in a very good mood tonight...

"I wouldn't see any problem with that, being as it's extracurricular."

"Oh thank you sir!"

My dear Ed was thinking of his lovely Nikki. I wouldn't have been surprised if the answer would have been no, if Ed would've wanted to stay at his current school, just to be with his girlfriend as much as possible!

Once Korey had finished dinner, he greeted Don and informed him that he would be happy to accept Ed, Cass and Corin to his school. He also told us, "Once young Bree and Darrin are old enough, I would love to come over again for some salmon!" he winked as he said this and then wished us a good night.

Don and I were very happy to have our children in private school. A good education for our children was always one of our top priorities.

Having taken care of our older children it was time to start focusing more on helping our youngest. That night I helped Bree learn how to walk.

Cass decided she had enough partying recently and while we were all asleep in bed, she crept out of hers to play some piano, while she was playing she felt the tingles that accompany birthdays. The only person there to watch her age up was our maid BJ.

Cass aged into a lovely young woman obsessed with her piano. Don and I have decided to give her her very own piano when she moves out.

As a child, Cass rarely showed any interest towards something other than music, but now as a teen she has informed us that she has been inspired by the headmaster's visit and wants to become the Minister of Education when she is an adult. She has also decided that its time to come out from under her musical rock, and meet some new people.

--- Cass is family sim, who's LTW is to reach the top of the Education career. If

you can remember back, she is a copycat of her older brother Ed, who is also a family sim who wants to reach the top of the education career....

She is different from Ed in that her secondary aspiration is popularity. Which seems to be a much better combination than Ed's family and romance.

P.S. I love how sims with max Music and Dance enthusiasm will change into formal wear to play the piano! I'll have to see if it just happens with the grand piano.

Everyone continued to sleep on that night while Cass played her heart out. I'm really relieved that my relationship with Don hasn't changed, even though our age difference is more apparent now to everyone. He and I are in love now more than we were when we were younger.

When I woke up that morning I found a grown up Cass reading some of my old cook books. I decided to test the teenage angst waters by interrupting Cass while she was preoccupied..

"Good morning dear, you look lovely."

With a heavy sigh, Cass responded, "Thanks Mom...."

"Which recipe are you looking at?""Mom, less talking more reading!""I was just curious dear.""Mu-ooom! I am trying to read!"

Well... the teen angst has indeed hit, although she didn't go storming off to her room like I had expected.

She just continued to sit there

and read. And you know what, I found it quite humorous that she didn't want me to interrupt her reading yet she didn't give me that same courtesy! -

"Mom, have you ever made

baked Alaska before?"

"Hmm.... what was that saying of yours, oh yes, 'less talking more reading' "

"Mu-ooom!" I laughed and responded, "No, I actually haven't, would you like to make one

later?" "Yeah... that'd be nice"

So, my sweet child was still in there some where. It's still frustrating to know that our relationship is never going to be simple again though with those hormones raging through her body.

While Cass and I continued to pretend the other was in the same room, Corin was out in the greenhouse tending to the garden. He's pretty much taken over that job. Since my birthday, I feel a lot stiffer than I used to, so its nice to have Corin so happy to do most of the yard work and weeding.

---Corin, as you can see, has gotten his silver gardening badge.

Later I found some time for my darling Darrin, and taught the little guy how to walk.

While I was doing this Cass had called up the local matchmaker and asked for a blind date. She figured her cousin Loralie had been lucky with her date, so she might be as well.

When her date turned out to be Alvin Futa, a guy from her old school, Cass wasn't too hopeful. The only time she had ever seen Alvin outside of class was in the local library when she had gone to check out a cd of the Pleasantview symphony.

She decided to give the date a chance, but realized she and Alvin didn't really have that much chemistry. She also decided it was much more fun to hit him over the head with a pillow than to talk to him about neutrons.

I've dedicated today to spending time with the little ones. I couldn't tell you how excited I was when Bree's first word was, "Momma." Our time together that afternoon seemed to be interrupted 100 times!

It seems my elderly body got the best of me that afternoon though, as I ran for the bathroom, Bree made it into Corin's bedroom and took great pleasure in playing with Corin's favorite toy horse.

And, regretfully, this is where I'm going to conclude this chapter. I want to thank you all again for waiting (hopefully patiently?) for this chapter! I'm looking forward to writing the next chapter, and playing more for this family. If you're interested in keeping up to date with sneak peaks on the Hinckley legacy, visit SiMania, a Sims 2 & 3 chat forum that focuses on talking about all things Sims! The address is www.s12.invisionfree.com/Sim_Mania and don't forget to introduce yourself in the introductions forum.

Thanks again for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!Take care,

Hippielayla86