Sweet sixteen: World first surviving septuplets turn 16

Kenny, Kelsey, Natalie, Brandon, Alexis, Nathan and Joel McCaughey, from Carlisle, Iowa, celebrate their 16th birthdays on Tuesday.
Doctors were unsure if they were going to make it past their first few days, but now
the McCaughey septuplets are celebrating turning 16 - and planning driving lessons, college degrees and careers.

'I will always remember the day we found out there were so many,' Bobbi told the Des Moines Register. 'It wasn't like "yoohoo!" There were so many doubts. To a lot of people this might sound trite, but God determined the outcome.'
Learning they had septuplets on the way sparked international headlines that would chart the children's every move.

  After the babies were born nine weeks prematurely in Des Moines in 1997, joining their big sister, Mikayla Marie, news crews swarmed their modest one-floor home.
Amid the media frenzy, President Bill Clinton personally called the family to congratulate the family, Oprah welcomed them on her show and companies and strangers scrambled to help out the couple.

Among the donations, they received a 5,500 square foot home, a van, a year's worth of Kraft's macaroni and cheese, diapers for the first two years and full college scholarships for any state university in Iowa.
During the early months, the septuplets drank 42 bottles a day and went through 52 diapers.
But over the years, the media coverage has waned and the coupons for free food have run out - encouraging the family to be frugal.
And from their early teenage years, the septuplets have been helping out the family by carrying out chores, such as their own laundry.

The family still lives in the same house that was donated after the births and continues to use the same van.
And while the four boys and three girls are looking forward to being 16 and driving, their father, who still works at a metal coating plant, warned that they can only have cars once they get jobs.
He is also up against other teenage challenges.
'The biggest challenge is making sure they keep up with certain things but not keep up with certain things, trendy things,' Kenny said of his teenagers. 'Three of them have cellphones and a couple have iPads.'
The family has saved to cover braces for several of the children and the medical needs of Alexis and Nathan, who were born with forms of cerebral palsy.

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Last year they began high school and have become fully immersed in activities; all are part of the band and perform at halftime at football games.

Happy and healthy: Natalie, left in hospital and right today, is a promising student and hopes to teach

Strong: Brandon, pictured left and right, enjoys wrestling and hopes to join the military after graduating

Tiny: Kelsey was the lightest baby at 2lb 5oz but she now enjoys soccer and wants a career in cosmetology

Hard workers: Kenny, left, also enjoys wrestling at school, woodworking, fishing and playing the drums

Fighter: Alexis, who suffers from cerebral palsy, is in cheerleading as a manager and hopes to teach

Impressive: Nathan, who also has cerebral palsy, hopes for a career in science after school

Last but not least: Joel was the 8th to be born, weighing just 2lbs 15oz. He now runs track and plays trombone

Five have run cross country, another wrestles, one plays soccer and another enters speech contests, while six were on the honor roll, the Register reported.
'It's fun to see the work pay off,' Bobbi said of her children.
As their lives have become busier, they have fallen from television screens and magazines - from Time magazine to Dateline NBC - that they regularly graced throughout their childhoods.
While Bobbi said she missed the media, the children are less bothered.
'It was kinda cool but in other ways I never liked it, all these cameras following you around everywhere,' Nathan said. Culled from dailymail.