Part 4: Birthdays and a little friendly competition

Alexander prepared to blow out his birthday candles thinking about the many things he had achieved in his life. He was finally content that his decidion to move to Pleasantview had been a good one - his family was happy and had a firm foundation for future generations in the twins.

Although as Alexander realised growing old didn't mean that your life was over... he could still enjoy everything he had previously - starting with birthday cake.

The day after Alexander's birthday brought a whole new idea into the Montari household... Nathaniel had grown bored of just talking to his friends on the phone and began to invite them around. It was at this time Elizabeth began to realise that most of Nathaniel's friends were girls.

Then when she commented on his choice of friends Nathaniel replied with, 'you're just jealous'. Although Nathaniel was joking with his sister and wasn't intentionally nasty it did give Elizabeth an idea - just for some friendly competition.

The next night she proved that Nathaniel's strategy for getting to know girls worked just fine for boys too.

Not to be outdone Elizabeth decided to go one better and ended up getting her first kiss.

When she told Nathaniel he could hardly believe that he had been beaten to a first kiss by his know-it-all (three minutes younger) sister.

The next night Nathaniel showed that he too was a hit with the opposite sex...

Nathaniel was, however, in trouble with his parents for sneaking out instead of going to his mum's birthday party. That didn't last long though because Alexander has something of a soft spot when it came to his children and Andrea - well she was contemplating how that many candles can fit on such a small cake.

Alexander did attempt to cheer Andrea up in his own special, if somewhat childish way.

Andrea tried cheering herself up by playing as she had when she was little.

But it was Elizabeth who had the idea of the makeover. After she got used to her new hair Andrea was much happier.

Nathaniel had moved on to another girl by this time - he had even tried to impress her by cooking her grlled cheese sandwiches. Which despite its utter hopelessness as a romantic gesture seemed to work.

Nathaniel had a new girl and Alexander had a new car... I think he prefered his choice. Even with Andrea's teasing about his choice - 'What do you mean mid-life crisis?'

Then it was time for Hailey - yes, Nathaniel even bothered to learn the name of this one - to meet his parents. Although when it came to it he seemed to have disappeared - leaving Hailey to wonder about whether this was a good idea.

Andrea soon put her fears to rest by telling her lots of embarrassing stories about when Nathaniel was little - which of course she never would have been allowed to do if Nathaniel was there. Without much protest that is.

Overall Andrea was glad to meet the girl who her son seemed to have fallen for - before the twins disappeared off to college that is. The acceptance letters from La Fiesta Tech had arrived that morning as well as numerous scholarship letters. Now both Alexander and Andrea just had to come to terms with the fact that their babies weren't so much babies as young adults who would be leaving home in a matter of days.