It’s time for the Cooke family!

Back: Madelina, James

Front: Armando, Julien

We return to where we left off with the Cookes last season…

“I am too having an alien baby,” Madelina said. “Brat.”

Then Madelina headed off to work. She doesn’t look at all pregnant from the front in this outfit.

Reno Day! I added a second story, with a nice upstairs platform for the telescope. Because a Knowledge sim is heir.

The second floor is basically a playroom.

I did some rearranging on the first floor, too. I didn’t like the placement of the kitchen, way in the back, so I moved Madelina’s bedroom back there instead. The kitchen moved to what was formerly the playroom/study, with the desks moving into the old nursery and the fun stuff and career rewards going upstairs. Madelina’s old room is empty for the new baby.

Promotion! Is anybody surprised? Madelina then went right back to work.

 After getting home from school, James headed to the computer, where he found a job in Culinary. He figured he might as well get a start on his LTW.

Julien and Armando spent the day hanging out having fun.

Guess what happened to Madelina at work…

I send sims on vacation once, and everybody in town is doing that Hang Loose gesture.

Pretty much everybody in this family has maxed Music & Dance enthusiasm at some point.

James decided he wanted to see what unburnt lobster tasted like.

Alas, it was not to be.

“Well, Madelina, when are you going to marry the father of your baby?”

“Dad, I told you, it’s an alien baby.”

If you don’t know where James is, he’s here. On the couch. With a book.

The next morning, Armando got up ridiculously early to play guitar.

Madelina was about to have breakfast when the labor pains hit.

Soon she gave birth to a baby girl. Madelina named her Sharlene.

“Wow! It really is an alien baby!”

Per neighborhood tradition, the family promptly headed out to run the restaurant.

I decided I really want  my playables to come to community lots, so I got some new hacks so they can shop but not have money taken out of their accounts.

Back home, the grandpas discovered a soft spot for their little alien granddaughter.

Madelina came home from her next work shift with a promotion to Mad Scientist, achieving her LTW!

“Bye, kids, I’m off to work!”

“Time for my first day of work! How exciting!”

“Hello, family, I’m home from work!”

Yeah, that’s pretty much how Tuesday went.

Madelina came out to say hi to Neil, and he offered her a blind date! That pretty much never happens to sims who aren’t already married. Since Madelina’s new LTW was to have 50 1st dates, she accepted.

A fellow named Colin fell from the sky.

Madelina took one look at him and gave up on her plan to remain alone. Colin was…perfect.

Colin agreed to move in just before Madelina had to leave for work.

He brought 12k and an empty inventory. No job, but he’s got a lot of skills. So he was some sort of NPC.

Apparently one day is all it takes to make it to the top of the teen Culinary career. Meet James the overachiever.

“Um, hi, did my dads hire a butler or something?”

“Young man, I believe you’ve been watching too many movies.”

James had kind of kept to himself all his life, so Orlando Centowski became his first friend outside the family.

Colin went to the computer to find a job. His dream was to one day be Captain Hero, but there were no Law Enforcement jobs available. He took a position in Criminal in the interim.

Then, thinking maybe it was better if he didn’t look like a butler (or restaurant host, or whatever the heck his job was before he fell out of the sky), he headed off for a makeover. He looks much better now.

Colin is a Family/Fortune sim with a LTW to top Law Enforcement.

Madelina the mad scientist had an experiment she wanted to try.

Of course, she sometimes had to take breaks to care for the result of the previous experiment.

Madelina’s portrait is finished! Julien painted it.

James finished studying mechanical, leaving him with only two skill points to go until he would know everything.

Colin returned home from work with a friend, which is great because he didn’t have any.

The crew headed for the restaurant, taking Colin for the first time. Since he has max cooking, he got to man the grill.

Tons of neighborhood residents hanging out! I like this. I just hope the hack works and they don’t lose all their money.

(Also, Sofiya has stupid pregnancy hair. Boo.)

Colin liked to show his love for Madelina.

That night, they were able to carpool to work together.

Sadly, it wasn’t until after they were gone that I realized I missed the popup for Sharlene’s birthday. She got to have her grandpa bring her to the cake, though.

Sharlene grew up adorable, and with a suitably alien personality – 10/4/9/2/10.

Madelina rolled up wants to teach Sharlene her skills, so Julien gave her her smart milk and set her up on the bunny head.

Madelina got home just in time for potty training. Lucky her.

After Sharlene was tucked in for the night, Madelina headed up to the roof to resume her dance sphere experiment.

James maxed his charisma, and now has maxed skills!

I think Madelina’s experiment may be a success…

Colin returned home with a promotion, but then quit his job when he found an opening in Law Enforcement.

James was a little at loose ends after maxing all his skills. He spent much of the morning playing fetch with a stray dog.

Colin was excited to head off for his first day in his new job.

Madelina stepped off the exercise sphere, both pleased and disappointed. She had succeeded in getting abducted, but the aliens had not impregnated her again.

(Apparently my “no alien sexism” hack doesn’t extend to the dance sphere. I could have cheated her a pregnancy, but I decided not to as Colin’s eager to start his family.)

Colin returned home with a promotion!

Now that Madelina wasn’t so busy with her dance sphere experiments, she could get around to finally falling in love with Colin.

I thought about buying them an arch so Madelina’s dads would come watch, but I’m lazy.

Colin took Madelina’s last name, as she’s the Cooke heir.

Madelina had to head to work right after the wedding. 😦

“So, you’re married to my sister, huh? That’s great! I hope you like grilled cheese.”

Julien spends a few hours on the phone every day, keeping up with his 40 BFFs.

Another day, another carpool.

Not an alien. Hopefully a redhead.

“Say ‘sky child’!”

“So, son, you’re growing up tonight. Excited?”

“Sure am.”

That evening…

James grew up well, and got a promotion!

After getting a nice new outfit, James headed up to the roof to see if he could manage to meet the aliens like his sister.

Here’s an adorable picture of Sharlene to end the chapter!

Next up is the Bruce family.

Stats:

Sims 59
Households 15
Owned lots 15
Unowned lots 2
Military lot? YES
Business districts 3
Universities 0
Downtown? 0
Sim multiplier 20
Population 1180
Uni funds 306100

Careers:

Adventure 1 of 1
Architecture 3 of 6
Athletic 2 (unlocked)
Business 6 (unlocked)
Criminal 1 of 2
Culinary 4 (unlocked)
Dance 1 of 1
Education 1 of 4
Entertainment 1 of 1
Intelligence 2 of 3
Journalism 0 of 2
Law Enforcement 3 of 3
Medicine 0 of 1
Military 1 (unlocked)
Music 0 (unlocked)
Oceanography 0 (1 special)
Politics 0 (unlocked)
Science 0 of 1 (2 special)
Slacker 1 of 1

Businesses:

Businesses
Larisa’s Fish Market Pavlov Rank 10
Five & Dime Pavlov Rank 9
Club C Cooke Rank 10
Cooked To Perfection Cooke Rank 8
Wired Bruce Rank 7
Games Ahoy Hamilton Rank 6
Hobby Horse Picaso Rank 8
Galleria Pederson Rank 6
Cakewich Thayer Rank 6
A Whole New You Carr Rank 10
Miss Nadezda’s Dance Studio Carr Rank 7
Paws Cooke-Pavlov Rank 4
Sunshine Floral St. Pavlov Rank 3
Sleep Soft Fairchild Rank 4
Tots Best Toys Bendett Rank 1