​

​​Diana, Maureen, and Erin

​Diana, Maureen, and Erin are three out of a set of quintuplets. That was quite a day for their mom and dad! All things considered, the delivery went smoothly. Diana is the oldest of the sisters by a few minutes followed by Maureen and Erin.

It was pretty clear that their parents were going to have their hands full feeding all of the kids. The babies had to be fed twice a night, and it would take two hours to feed them all each time. Their father would prepare 25 bottles at a time and both of their parents would bottle feed the babies like an assembly line. The joke was that if their father looked in the fridge and saw five gallons of milk, he knew they were running low. Fortunately, the kids got hungry in the same order. Maybe that was their way of helping out.

Although she was only the oldest by a few minutes, Diana also had a tendency to be the leader of the group. She was often the first to try things.  They took a lot of cues from each other. The other kids often watched for her reaction before trying new foods. If one of them liked a particular food, the others usually wanted to try it. Spaghetti and chicken soup were their favorites. When it was time to get vaccinated, they often cried in sympathy after watching their sibling getting the shot (ironically, the kid getting the actual shot usually didn't react as much).

Everybody in the family was artistic, and they loved to draw and paint together. In fact they liked to do everything together. They were never lonely when they had each other as their best friends. 

Maureen was the most outgoing and loved to read out loud in class. She majored in theater and has worked as both as an actor and as a set and costume designer. Now she's raising a new baby while studying to be an elementary school librarian.

Erin was more outdoorsy and was fascinated by how ​rocks are formed. She majored in geology with a minor in art and worked for a time doing soil analysis and glacial geomorphology (that's the study of how glaciers and ice affect the landscape). Today, she works for a company supporting peer reviewed research.

Diana was drawn to biology because she thought people are fascinating. Eventually, she majored in biology and became really interested in how nutrition can play a huge role in preventive health. Today, she's training to be a ​nutritionist for​ WIC and looks forward to being a Competent Professional Authority for the WIC Program.

The sisters didn't know that they were on WIC growing up, but looking back now, they can see it was obvious in the nutritious food they were getting. Today, they still live near each other in Frederick, and they all see each other regularly (we photographed them here at a family get-tegether in Baker Park).