Hi Fussbudget,
I'd like to see some of these things too..though not all. I dont want to speed the time...My peeps age fast enough already. There are some things you mentioned that are in the game however. Here they are:

-SPEEDING UP OF CHORES / This can be done by putting all fam. members to work on them at once.

-CHARACTER INTERACTION / It would be nice if they could interact a bit more, BUT they do interact some. If you push an adult on a child she/he will TELL THEM A STORY which all the kids participate in, or TICKLE THEM. This is the only two things I've seen.
If you put one kid on another, they can PLAY TRAIN,or HAVE A GIGGLE PARTY that all the kids get into. IT'S WAY TOO CUTE! HOWEVER,it would also be really nice if they could play together like the tag game they play in Villagers 2. That was so very cute!

-PATIO / They can sit in the chairs, however you have to make them

-BARBECUE / I was disappointed that they don't eat the barbecue..and it would be nice if they ate it on the patio table.

-BIRDBATH / The birds do bathe in the birdbath, though I've only seen this in the early morning hours. ***THIS IS ONE OF THE DOWNFALLS OF THE 12 VIRTUAL YRS. OF NIGHT AND 12 OF DAY. I HATE PLAYING AFTER 5, AS ALL MY PEEPS ARE EXHAUSTED AND WILL HARDLY DO ANYTHING. REVERSING THE DAY/NIGHT THING DOESN'T WORK FOR ME EITHER, AS SOMETIMES I LIKE TO PLAY IN THE DAY...
-LAUNDRY / They will do laundry, etc. if you drop them in the right place. Since the upgrade I've seen them do some of these on their own.