Welcome back to The Fantabulous Newsons, by attempt at a Sideshow Challenge, created by aelflaed at MTS, rules reposted on my LJ. It's a hardship challenge, made even harder by my decision to use Apartment Life's Newson family as the subjects. I can win if a) I create a Level 10 circus business, b) amass $20,000 cash in hand, or c) have residents max 6 skills and earn 6 gold badges. Ha! As if any of those will ever happen!

So the second round of playing the Newsons did not go much better than the previous one. They were finally able to afford a pet bad (with $4 left over!), which is cheaper than a crib, but then Garrett and Georgia would climb into it, lie down, get out, climb into it, lie down, get out... over and over. (The loop eventually fixed itself – I don't know why.)

Also, on her day home with the kids, Ginger got vomited on twice in a row.

I took this picture to show how bad it was. See all the homework, the used diaper, the stinky bottle, the dirty dishes, the toddler on the pet bed, and the stressed-out teenager?

It got worse.

Much worse.

Much, much worse.

All the kids have Ds, except for Ginger, who has a D minus. Georgia and Gabriella simply didn't go to school, although thanks to a hack by Pescado they did not get taken by the Social Worker. (I forgot it was in until the Social Worker didn’t show.) Gavin did go to school before I could stop him. And you see Garrett's meters there? This was actually them looking pretty healthy.

Georgia and Garrett aged up Thursday evening, which should have helped.

Of course, like I said, Georgia flat-out refused to go to school on Friday.

And while Garrett might look okay, he grew up in the deep red and then stayed there.

Saturday was something of a godsend, since it allowed everyone a chance to do some homework without more getting piled on top of it.

Performances continued. Gavin is getting pretty good at the fiddle now.

Ginger and Georgia danced to his playing for a while.

Georgia did a headstand after that, while her sister helpfully cheered her on.

Gabriella blew bubbles, and Gallagher jumped rope.

Garrett also skipped rope, because it's about the only thing he would do without pitching a fit. He actually gained aspiration points for this, and promptly lost them again when he passed out on the lawn because he was too picky to share a bed with anyone else.

The family opened a little gift shop area to sell genuine boots they fished out of the pond, as well as the no-longer-useful pet bed and the used potty chair. Nobody seemed to want to buy that, but they earned their first star anyway.

Sims can also sell anything they dig up except the treasure chest, so I set Ginger to digging for inventory. Her first time out of the gate, she digs up the one thing I am expressly forbidden from using.

I was so disgusted by that, I gave her a tattoo. Carnies have lots of tattoos, right?

They do now, anyhow.

Can I continue to not fail this challenge? Will the Newsons ever be able to sleep properly? Just how many meters can you have deep orange or even red at one time? Find out in the next episode of The Fantabulous Newsons! Until next time, Happy Simming!