Feedback on Birthday Celebration for adult couple

HappySimmer3

I'm playing a YA couple who are going to age up to adults within one day of each other. So technically I'm looking for ideas on what I should do for two birthdays (although I could change their ages to match with the NRASS Mastercontroller).

I was just wondering what other people have done to celebrate birthdays for their adult sims, if anything. I thought I could have them read the paper and find out where the popular club was going to be that night and have them go there and age up while partying at a club. Or I suppose I could have them invite some friends over first, make up a group, then go out.

Or I could have them throw a home BD party but kind of wanting to do something different. I know simmers are a creative bunch so just seeking ideas here! So what kinds of fun things have you done for your grown sims' birthdays?

Charlottesmom

I admit reluctantly I am horrible at celebrating Birthdays for my little pixelated friends. I think in the past 11 months I have been playing Sims 3 I have bought a grand total of 1 Birthday cake! I will have to make more of an effort. I like how you and others make it special, as it should be.

HappySimmer3

Yeah the funny thing is that I have been playing this game since the end of June, which might just be a record for me. When TS3 was going strong, the only other family I played for awhile was right after WA came out, and the game ended up eating them. lol Meaning that they ended up stuck in France, and that was the end of that.

So the rest of the time, I just played very short games and it was fun, because I like exploring user made custom worlds and hung out a lot in the CAW forum. But after a period of great disappointment with TS4, I went back to TS3 and I have such a new appreciation of it! I always liked it, but after seeing TS4 I just feel like hugging it to me tightly.

At any rate, after playing this family for so long, I am really attached to them and want to do something special for their birthdays. It also helps that I have slowed time down with the NRASS Relativity mod and have also extended aging way past epic aging. I had to edit the options.ini file so that my sims live to be around 80 years old - each season is 6-9 days/ 4 seasons in each sim year is 30 days. I'm playing a large household, too. A smaller household at these extended ages would probably bore me to tears!

Thanks for replying.

TreyNutz

I usually don't do anything for birthdays either; don't even get a cake, just use MasterController to trigger age transition. But I did recently have a married couple who were very close in age, if not exact, age to adults. I had one throw a birthday party at a venue (a customized version of The Grind) and bought two cakes. After the one who threw the party blew out the candles and the cake was gone, I had the other blow out the candles.

You might also consider sending them to the spa for one of the packages. They are expensive but the moodlet lasts 7 days.

S_Empress

It depends how popular the sim is or what traits they have. For adult sims, I can have an "adult" party. Only their older friends. Birthday cake and a juice bar. Music and a lot of conversation.

That's plenty of effort, so sometimes I will invite two or three of their best buds and maybe a family member over. Cook up an unusually nice dinner (I'm big on the cooking skill). More convo, dinner and a birthday cake. Mature, short and sweet.

For my married sims, birthday woohoo is always nice.

Once I had a family celebrate the mother's birthday with a cake and then the husband surprised her with an excellent birthday gift: a new car!

Slavic_Empress <3

HappySimmer3

Cool ideas, thanks!

I don't usually do much for birthdays either, but I've grown so attached to them I wanted to do something. Plus I'm doing a story with these sims, so topics for episodes are always on my radar.

igazor

I don't actually know how or why I got into the habit of celebrating and making a fuss out of all of my sims' birthdays. I certainly hate it when others make a fuss over mine. But I had this one loner sim not long ago whom I decided should just spin into his new age in private and be done with it.

He was fine, of course, but I felt so sad for him. It's not like he didn't have any friends at all I could have invited over. I'm not doing that again!

But just really wanted to point out that if you want two sims to age up together, you don't really have to adjust their ages. If you direct one to blow out the cake candles before it's the end of their age cycle, it's then their birthday and they age up anyway. Though if you do that to a child or a teen, they tend to miss out on some end of the school year activities.

HappySimmer3

Poor loner guy. Sounds like my 21st birthday. On a SUNDAY. That was many years ago, so hey, I'm over it.

Thanks, igazor. I did know about the birthday cake thing. I think I'm going to have them go to one of the clubs for a BD date and I'll decide if I want to take a cake along for the other one. Or maybe I'll throw a home party for the first one and the next night just have them go out to celebrate the other. I'm not going to throw a party at a club, though - they will age up there when it's time and everyone there will still be around to cheer them on. So that would work.

CravenLestat

I like cetrain things for certain situations.If a toddler ages up I like to buy him fun stuff like the trampoline or arcade games and birthdays always includes a full makeover of the bedroom depending on age like kids rooms are cute and have little monkeys hanging on the wall etc and for teens they get a new car which conveniently fits in a square box with a red bow.Sim birthdays are fun because unlike real life your funds can be quite large so spoiling them is fun.Take the kids to the festivals let em eat junk food and get face painted and stuff.Giving teens a car is always a favorite of mine because you can fit the car to match the sims favorite color.Daughters always get more spoiled then sons,just love spoiling the girls and they get bigger bedrooms with cooler stuff.

HappySimmer3

I need to buy more toys for my toddlers when they age up to child. A music player, maybe! They pretty much have everything else.

I know one thing, my sim is going to give her oldest a car in one of the tiny gift boxes as soon as she ages up to teen.

S_Empress

You can of course decorate as well. Balloons. Generations has a few like..curtain..banner...party things.

HappySimmer3

Yes I usually put out the birthday balloons. I don't usually decorate the rest of the house too much, though. It's a large household! But I might just do that this time. Thanks!

BSIRegina

I usually get my Sims birthday cakes and they eat that for dinner but have never thrown a birthday party. If you stick the birthday left-over cake in a Sim's inventory until it rots they can use it for fish bait. (Thank Tontrin for that bit of info because she's the one who told me, and yeah, any rotten food they have can be used as bait.)

HappySimmer3

I did not know that about rotten food and bait! Thank you, and thanks to Tontrin!

BSIRegina

It comes in handy, especially if you have a half-dozen Sims in a family and it feels like there's a never-ending supply of birthday cake.

Jessa_Dakkar

From YA to A? I would have a backyard barbecue if the weather cooperates. Grill up some steaks or salmon instead of the usual burgers and hotdogs. Break out a bottle of the good nectar, no juice keg, or maybe hire a bartender to tend bar. Hire a singer or a DJ for a little entertainment. Put out the horseshoes. Possibly upgrade their vehicles or buy my sims something else nice.

I need to do way more birthday parties. They were always such a struggle for me in TS2 that I never really got into them in TS3.

HappySimmer3

Thanks, Jessa_Dakkar! I've never hired entertainment for a party! I've got to do that!

thuggishsplicer

I like Jessa's idea!

I often celebrate adults' parties at clubs and bars. Waylon's Haunt is my favorite, but I'm growing attached to The Toadstool.
Recently, I've started to edit the venues before the party. I can save the venue, add the things I want in there and then, I rent it for the party. At least the house doesn't get messy. You have to watch out because some venues can't be rented for a birthday party itself. If you change it to a bar, it'll be fine.

Taking them to a club or venue and blow the candles there is an interesting idea as well.