Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft

Dad! I'm so excited. It's nearly the end of my schooling here. I should be headed home real soon now.

I'm sure you will be impressed with everything that I've learned. Music of all sorts, art and sculpture of all styles. It's been an intense time.

There's no one here that I'll particularly miss though. I've never really connected with any of other kids really fully. Penpals for a few years and slowly drift away from each other is my guess.

I can tell that Dixie is getting her unfair share of attention. Between you and Shannon, I bet Dixie rarely has more than a few minutes of being hungry or lonely before one of you turns up.

I see that eventually you decided to try metal sculpting again. I hope this time you remembered to keep the torch well away from your posterior. Because I do not want to come home to flame-broiled Dad. That is not on.

Dad, I'm so pleased you sent the series of pictures with the wild horse. That's a really pretty horse.

It's so cool that you're slowly convincing the horse to trust you.

But isn't it a bit scary to get up close to something that much bigger than you are?

Still it looks like you were doing very well with the horse. Does this mean I'll get to ride it someday?

Hmm, probably not. I can't see us keeping a horse on our tiny lot.

Mittens seems to be quite the hunter. If you hadn't sent the picture of him jumping like that, I wouldn't have believed that he could.

Ok, so Shannon wanted to show off where she works but surely Dixie is too young to take to a proper restaurant? I mean, I know you both think the local sitters aren't terribly good but surely for a couple of hours it would have been fine? I hope for the sake of the other customers that she was a very quiet baby.

Looks like there is an advantage to having a lot at the edge of town. Raccoons, horses and deer wander through, that's pretty neat, Dad.

Your sculpture did turn out interesting. And selling what was scrap metal for over $900 must have felt pretty good.

I must say the new swing you bought for Dixie with the sculpture money looks adorable. It has to be the cutest thing evar.

Now, let's see if I have this straight.

The story is that Shannon went to the park to grill some dogs to keep in practice at cooking. The fridge at home is nearly overflowing with leftovers as it is so she decided to feed the rest of town for a change.

Thomas came up and mentioned that he had some puppies that were ready to give away and he'd love it if you guys took one.

So you went over and picked up a puppy and brought her home.

She looks very cute.

And it looks like the puppy is getting to know the rest of the family pretty well. That's a good thing, I'm sure.

Man, I am so very very sorry that I've been missing everything that happens at home. First Mason has a birthday, then Dixie being born and now look at her.

She's getting so big already. It makes me sad that my baby sister doesn't know me at all. And Mason must barely remember me, he was still so small when I left for school.

That's a very pretty hair colour that Dixie has. That's from your dad? The only picture you have of granddad is after he's gone grey you know.

Poor Mason, his first try at the chemistry set didn't work too well, did it?

Oh, Dad. I know boys will be boys but you are letting Mason collect small animals?

Yeah, yeah, I know you SAY he'll be the one taking care of them but do you honestly think he'll remember them? Especially cleaning the cages? I'll bet you and Shannon will be doing that far too much. Still, he found a shrew, that's pretty cool.

I'm glad that Mason organised a sleepover for one weekend. It's good for him to get to know the kids his age better.

Love you guys and I will be home soon now.

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Bonus Pics

Shannon, just a little hint - baby goes IN stroller.

Mason, that is not the approved way to get leftovers out of the fridge.

Johnny can float in mid-air. Gotta believe in magic. :P

Inverse Cerberus - one head and three tails. Actually that the mom and her pups sharing the one space. No one came to any harm from it.

Poor Mittens - would you believe that it's a beetle putting up that much of a fight?

Stray animals and newspapers. If your Sims don't read them, it's really time to cancel them.

And they called it Puppy Love.

Hmm, what evil plots come to mind when you are a guest at a sleepover? Too bad he can't do stuff like set traps in someone else's household, that would be ideal. (If you read my other blogs, you might know this Sim.)

For the impatient - Dixie grown. She's perfect, she has Sammy hair and eyes (I forget that this blog is so slow that Dixie is a granddaughter of Sam. I was really surprised by the hair and eyes until I remembered.) She has way more Shannon facial features which means she's just lovely.