The McCaughey family has seven reasons to celebrate: Their septuplets just turned 21!
Joel, Nathan, Kelsey, Natalie, Alexis, Kenneth and Brandon McCaughey were the first-ever surviving septuplets when mom Bobbi and dad Kenny welcomed them in 1997, according to the Des Moines Register.
More than two decades later, their big birthday on Monday is giving the family cause to reflect. “I think that we’re all becoming very independent and finding our different talents and different skill sets,” Kelsey told Today. “It’s cool to celebrate this different milestone.”
“To us, 21 is just another year of getting older. It doesn’t really feel like 21 is special in any way,” Nathan explained to the Herald-Whig.
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“I don’t think we’re planning on doing anything special on Monday,” he continued. “The bulk of the celebrating is probably going to happen when we go home for Thanksgiving break on Tuesday.”
The group reportedly plans to have a party on Wednesday — but one way they will not be marking the occasion is with an alcohol-fueled bash. “It would be legal, but it won’t be happening,” Bobbi told Today.
Joel, Nathan, Kelsey, Natalie and Alexis go to Hannibal-LaGrange University, which gave them free tuition when they were still babies, according to Today. Kenneth attends a vocational school.
Brandon is in the military and is engaged to be married, the Herald-Whig reported.
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“Since they were very young they’ve had varied interests,” the mom of eight, who also has an older daughter, Mikayla, added to Today.
“They still have a very close bond to one another, but they also enjoy doing things with their friends and also exploring those different activities and different classes,” she said.
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“I know that it’s extraordinary or whatever to have this many babies and go this far,” Bobbi told CBS affiliate KCCI in 1997. “It’s something I just did. They’re my children, and I wanted them.”