- Kathleen Marie and her husband Adam have three sets of fraternal twins
- The Oregon couple conceived their children naturally without IVF
- The mom documents their family life on her website ‘Half a Dozen Twins’
A mother who had three sets of fraternal twins in five years has opened up about the realities of raising six young children, from the never-ending laundry to buying food in bulk.
Kathleen Marie and her husband Adam, from Oregon, are parents to seven-year-old James and Julie, five-year-old Mikey and Marie, and two-year-old toddlers Leo and Luke.
In an interview with Insider, the mom gave a behind-the-scenes look at how she stays organized and plans excursions for her children now that they are all home for the summer.
‘With six children seven years old and under, the summer holidays certainly keep me on my toes,’ she said. ‘It’s a shock to the system having them all at home for 10 weeks, but once I adjust, I love it.’
Kathleen Marie, a former nanny and kindergarten teacher, had always wanted a big family, but she never imagined having twins — let alone three sets of them.
Speaking with The Sun earlier this year, she recalled how shocked she and Adam were when they found out they were expecting James and Julie in 2016.
Two years later, after learning that twins run in her family, she got pregnant with Mikey and Marie.
Soon followed Leo and Luke, who were born in 2021.
All three sets of twins were conceived naturally without IVF. The odds of that happening are around 1 in 200,000.
Kathleen Marie told Insider that she is ‘not a natural planner,’ but she has to be organized or chaos will ensue.
She admitted that keeping up with the housework while the kids are home is a ‘nightmare,’ but has found ways to work smarter, not harder.
‘I use a robotic vacuum, and I leave it on when we go to bed so it vacuums while we sleep,’ she explained.
‘Some days I do three or four loads of laundry. I try to make sure our hampers with clean clothes are always stocked.’
Kathleen Marie avoids the mayhem of grocery shopping with her children by ordering frozen food in bulk and having it delivered.
The family of eight goes through at least four gallons of milk, six loaves of bread, 20 bags of crackers, and 40 single-serve yogurt containers a week.
The mom noted that they rarely eat out with their children because it’s not only hectic, but it is also expensive. Instead, they like to have picnics.
For a recent beach trip, they packed 12 sandwiches, a pack of salami, two packs of cheese, a bag of carrots, a bag of dried cranberries, and a large box of crackers, ensuring there was more than enough food to go around.
Kathleen Marie and Adam often take their children on day trips to the mountains, beach, farms, and parks, but they make sure to balance their adventures with quiet afternoons at home.
If they are traveling somewhere close, they will take their four-seater wagon, but longer rides require their eight-seater minivan with sliding doors.
Kathleen documents her family’s daily adventures on her website ‘Half a Dozen Twins’ and its corresponding social media pages.
She has more than 34,000 followers on Instagram, where she posts photos and videos of her trio of twins.
‘We’ve learned to step back and look at how hilarious the situation is,’ she told The Sun. ‘There are moments when I could laugh or cry and I choose to laugh.
‘I focus on the cute and take things one minute at a time because if I blink, I am going to miss it.’
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