Manzanita’s Mansion

Do you remember Baby Babcock? He was a childhood friend of Mesquite and Paris. He adopted Timothy as his dad and Cedar as his third mom. All through his bachelor life, he carried a bit of a torch for Acacia. Maybe that’s why he was captivated by Manzanita when she was a child.

Baby Babcock was always strangely drawn to Manzy.

Baby moved into the mansion across the street from Cradle Rock with his mom and sister back when it still belonged to the Callahans. As the last surviving resident, the estate fell to Baby, and he bequeathed it to Manzanita.

During her young adulthood, Manzy had no desire to move. Why would she want to? Home was where everyone was. But Eleanor, as she started moving through adulthood, felt differently. Cradle Rock was fun, and it was full of interesting people, but the point was that it was full. And this meant, Eleanor couldn’t fulfill her dream of a big happy family. There was simply no room to adopt anymore kids!

When Kamden became a teen, Manzanita and Eleanor decided it was time to take advantage of the gift Baby had left Manzanita.

Kamden woke up from a nap to blow out the candles, so he grew up in his pjs. He rolled Loves the Outdoors (my favorite trait) and Successful Lineage. Good roll, Kam! Wish you were going to be hanging around so I could enjoy your trait and help with your aspiration!

Manzy and Kamden moved out first to get the place ready for the family.

I was in for a surprise when I moved them. In Manage Households, it showed that Manzanita’s mansion was inhabited by a ghost, a ghost that looked an awful lot like Mesquite! In fact, it is Mesquite’s ghost, and he’s a playable ghost living in the mansion! What? How did that happen? His tombstone is still in the Cradle Rock graveyard, and just the night before, his ghost had played chess with I-dub.

Oh, well. The how’s matter not. It’s pretty wonderful that the ghost of Uncle Mesquite will be living there with El and M and their children!

After Manzy and Kamden moved across the street, Eleanor browsed the adoption website. So many cute kids needing homes! One little girl named Poppy stole her heart. As soon as she met her, she felt that Poppy was perfect. Well, she is a perfectionist!

That’s Poppy in the blue dress. I was so focused on the intricacies of the move that it seems I forgot to take good photos of the kids! Plus, sigh… I think I was beginning to separate myself from this family moving out.

Then, she found this other little girl, Kourtney, who looked like she could be Kamden’s natural sister.

That’s self-assured Kourtney in the white dress.

I was so taken by the orphans left on the orphanage website that I had to restrain myself from wanting to move in more once El moved out with her two new kids. (That’s three empty slots after all! Room for adopting three orphans!) I just couldn’t stand to think that some of those orphans would still be left in the Sim Bin, or wherever they are out there in unplayable land. Maybe sometime I’ll play an orphan game so I can move in as many as possible! But for this game, I need to practice restraint. Remember, my laptop has all it can handle!

Nobody at Cradle Rock felt a bit sad when El and M and the kids moved out–they’re just across the street!

And with all the parties and hanging out that lie ahead, they know they’ll be seeing them nearly every day!

“This is so cool that I get to walk across the street to come home! And I get to be here AS A GUEST! That means this dude isn’t cleaning any dishes!”

Manz seems really, really happy to have her own place for her family.

And the kids will get to ride the school bus together, too!

Now, when we look at the mansion across the street, we don’t need to think of it as a big empty house. We can think that there live Aunts El and M and cousins Kamden, Poppy, and Kourtney. And don’t forget the ghost of great uncle Mesquite!

You know you’re a glutton when you eat your own hand. (Hand of cards, that is.)