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October 2027

Jane Centowski is 37; Alex Centowski is 35
Christopher is 12;Kimberly is 10; Janie is 8; Jacob and Kathryn are 7; Orlando is 2
Previous update here


As much as she loved her children, Jane was always relieved when school started back after the summer.


Sure, six children (and two dogs) could be a handful on a regular weekend, but with school out for weeks, the chaos reached a whole new level.


At least for part of the weekend, the kids would be tired from the school week, and generally a bit quieter…


… and chores took up a bit of the time, too…


… but during the summer, they had just too much time to fill.







It was a challenge to get anything done…


Phone calls were near impossible…


… and even Alex’s normally unflappable mother seemed a little overwhelmed by it all.





The two dogs were a new addition… when Alex’ grandfather, who had lived with them, had passed away a few years ago, they’d inherited his little dog, Dakota.

Dakota was older than the kids, so they’d grown up with her, and Jane and Alex knew they’d be upset to lose her. They figured it would cushion the blow a little if they got a second dog while she was still around

They took the kids to the shelter one weekend, and came home with Sassy.

Dakota passed away a few months later. The kids were still upset, and so were the adults, probably a bit more than they’d expected. It wasn’t just because Dakota was gone, Alex had said, she’d lived a very long and happy life. It was also because that was one  more link to Granddad that was gone.

And that was what gave the kids their idea.

Didn’t everyone always say that there would always be a part of Grandad in the world because he left behind so many descendants? Dakota needed some descendants, too!

Fortunately, she already had some to get things started – she’d had a single litter of puppies, years ago, and one of them was Aunt Kyla’s dog, Sooty.


Sooty was a boy, so they needed to find a lady-dog to have the puppies for him. Their dad put the word out to his large extended family, and eventually heard from Uncle Ashley’s sister Helen, who would like some puppies for her little dog Pepper.


All went as planned. They kept one of the puppies, Morgan. Helen’s family kept one of the others, and so did Kyla. The remaining two also found homes among their relatives.

Sassy accepted the small newcomer surprisingly well…


… and Jane and Alex learned that small dogs can create just as much chaos as small humans.

There was another big change to the household this year. While the younger kids were still weekday boarders at a private school in Redwood City, Christopher was back living full-time at home, having decided to go to high school here in Richmond.


Jane and Alex had been expecting this – Christopher had never really settled into the boarding school, and he’d kept in close contact with his Richmond friends. It also set a precedent – they decided that each child could choose which high school they would go to, when the time came.

Kimberly was already talking about going to high school in Richmond in a couple of years They could imagine the younger ones however, after attending the private school longer than their eldest siblings, might want to stay at the school they were used to.

They could certainly afford the fees, now that Alex’s career as a game designer had really taken off.


Living back at home, Christopher could spend more time with his grandfather. Living just across the street meant that Kyle and Willow had a strong relationship with all of Jane and Alex’s children, but Christopher and Kyle were particularly close.


Sometimes they worked on the garden together, and Jane had flowers well into autumn, thanks to their efforts.

Other days they just talked, or Kyle would help Christopher with his homework, while they enjoyed the last of the warm weather.


There was another friend that Christopher was particularly interested in spending time with, a girl from his class named River.


She was a nice girl, who seemed to enjoy spending time with Christopher’s siblings almost as much as she enjoyed being with him.



Christopher swore they would never be more than just friends, but if she was to become his first girlfriend, Alex and Jane would be more than happy with that.

They were in no hurry for it though. Their kids were growing up fast enough as it was.


Right now, it was more than enough just to get a little time to themselves and some peace and quiet.

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Dear lord, but this house is noisy!! I had to play with the sound muted until the kids went back to school :)

UnlikeTS2, TS3 has boarding schools as part of the unmodded game. There are several schools that focus on different skills etc, and I’ve tried to match them with each child’s personality… but in-story, they’re all at the same school.

A couple of the kids have already phoned home, and I’ve read that they sometimes come home on the weekend, too. For future play, if I find they don’t come home often enough, I’ll just take them out of school for the weekend, then re-enrol them.

As for who will stay at boarding school when they become teens, I really am leaving it up to them - for each kid I’m noting the phone calls and their content (one kid wanted to come home, another phoned to say the school was good, so that works against/for staying at the school), and how many times they autonomously visit home (if they don’t, they’re obviously happy at school). I can use this info to decide for each child.

TS2 stray Dakota really did have a ridiculously long life, due to my implementing year-based aging for my human sims long before I did it for my pets. She was around so long, I was genuinely disappointed when she finally died, and I decided to make the puppies for much the same reason the kids decided in-story :)

River is River McIrish from the EA Single Moms household… more on how they came to be in Richmond and what they’re doing now, in a future update.

Little Orlando is still only two, and should really be a toddler until his third birthday in November … I aged him up early by mistake, and as he’s in so many of the pictures and his birthday is so close I decided to let it go.