3:19 Leisure

There will be an event held this Sunday

at Central Park. The day will include

eating contests, skating, water fights,

and other such activities suitable for the

hot weather conditions. All service citizens

will be given the day off work paid, so the

whole town can enjoy a day of leisure.

 "Hey, guys, fancy spending the day at the park? There's all kinds of activities, it looks good." Taylor asked, looking up from the laptop for a second. Just the day before, herself and Madison had been to the consignment store and bought enough seating and tables for six. They would have got enough for seven, but there wasn't really space, and Luis would be moving out soon. "Make it a family day? There's a photo stall, we can get a big family picture?"

"Yeah, sounds fun. Lets get the remainder of the kids ready and head off." Replied Madison, noting Shaena's look of approval and Jake's look of excitement.

There were loads more activities than advertised, and Taylor challenged Luis to a game of football, knowing that he wanted to lose a little extra weight.

Jake spent a bit of time dancing to the music being played over the loudspeakers.

Rose got a sun painted on her cheek. Fitting for the weather, she thought.

Kaity and Shaena tried their hand at skating, and were proud of themselves when they didn't fall over once!

And Madison, much to her teenagers' embarrassment, stripped down to her swimsuit and played with the sprinkler. A couple of hours went by, the whole family enjoying the wide variety of activities in the hot sun.

 "They're about to start the eating contest. Rematch?" Taylor grinned, remembering when she and her sister had been in high school and she'd won.
"You're on." Madison grinned back, determined to beat her sister this time. "Hey, girls!" She called to the girls on the skating rink, "You wanna watch me cream her at the eating contest?"
"Oh my God." Shaena hung her head, hoping nobody from school would be able to associate her with the woman in the bikini about to stuff her face with hot dogs. Taylor and Madison both laughed.
"Take that as a no, then?"

 Rose decided to join the girls on the rink, not wanting to look uncool by watching the eating contest, even though she did want to.

"Ready..."
"I'm gunna win this time."
"Set..."
"No you're not!"
"GO!"

The girls were neck and neck for nearly a minute.

It was the moment when they both started coughing, that Taylor realised she was losing, and Madison noticed she was winning.
That only made them more competitive.

Unfortunately for Taylor, Madison won, and her excited screech made her choke on a mouthful of bread.

She wasn't a sore loser, though, and happily pulled her sister into a congratulatory hug.

After the eating contest, they each pulled their own children away for some water-based activities while the sun set. Taylor opted to take on the triplets in a water balloon fight, while Madison decided her teenage children might find that too embarassing and so instead pulled them into the line of the sprinkler, splashing them so they'd splash her back.

They ended the day watching the fireworks display.

And, for once, nobody even noticed it was a full moon.

_____

 Luis had just become a man. His girlfriend, Layla, and all their friends and family were at their joint birthday party.

They had decided to live off the land, follow their fairy instincts, and had made their own clothes from a mix of different plant matters.

They couldn't wait to break free of their human lives they'd been living until now, and raise their own little family in the wilderness.

So much so, that the party was still in full swing when they left for their new life together.

_____

"Me and Shae are going to see her Dad's grave after school, are you coming?" Usually Rose would just go along with whatever someone else suggested, so it was almost a given that she would tag along.
"No, I don't want to go to a creepy graveyard." Kaity was a little shocked. She'd not heard Rose say 'no' to something in a long time. Shaena, on the other hand, was relieved. She'd wanted it to be just the two of them. She got on with Rose, but felt a lot more comfortable when it was just herself and Kaity.

It was a little uncomfortable for the two girls at the graveyard. It was raining, something they hadn't planned for, but Shaena thought she'd be sad to see her father's grave. As it was, she felt nothing. It made sense, as she'd never met him, but she still felt like she should cry or something.
"What's that?" Kaity suddenly broke the silence, pointing to a pillar near some other graves.
"I dunno." Shaena replied, squinting. The sun was bright despite the rain. "Let's check it out."

"What is it?" Kaity mused, wondering whether to touch the stone pillar or not. It looked like it had burrowed out of the ground at some point.
"I... I don't know..." Shaena raised her hand to shelter her eyes from the rain as she looked up. There seemed to be a face carved into it, and huge gemstones for the eyes. It looked quite old.

"Where do you think it came from?" Kaity asked rhetorically.
"Try and have a vision about it." Shaena suggested, realising that Kaity could work this all out.
"I've never tried to force one before..."
"Just try. It would be cool if you could figure out how to control it." Kaity nodded and closed her eyes tight, focussing all her energy on the stone pillar infront of her.

Before Kaity had time to react, the stone pillar shot a beam of energy towards her, lighting up the graveyard and taking both girls by surprise. The last thing either of them heard was their screams echoing off the hills and mountains surrounding the valley.

_____

Dun dun DUN!
Yeah, I went a little overboard with the summer festival. It was the first time I could actually play with it properly, as last summer they were all too scared of the weather. I had too much fun, and couldn't pick which pictures to use. You should see the amount I cut! LOL.
And also, LOL@my photo editing skillz :p 

Also, why do I insist on throwing birthday parties?!

 Route-fail-mania. And there were some other sims out of shot; outside, clogging the front door, at the bottom of the stairs...

There are 15 in this shot, and there were two by the mailbox at this point: Layla and Jackson.
Coincidentally, why isn't Jackson dead? :|