The Constable triplets are growing up.
Abbey, Tayler and Caitlin turned 12 yesterday and were busy planning their birthday party, coming up at the weekend.
"We're decorating masquerade masks," Tayler said.
Their birthday was another chance for the Otago Daily Times to mark their progress, having featured the in vitro fertilisation triplets when they were born, on their first birthday and their first day at school.
The girls, who could not remember being photographed on their first day at school, were slightly embarrassed to be picked out now.
They are now in year seven at Kavanagh College and for the first time have been separated into different classrooms. "It's good. We have our own friends and things," Abbey said.
While all the girls played netball this winter, they also had their own interests. Tayler is learning pipe-band drumming with her father, Abbey the flute and Caitlin is into art.
For parents Nigel and Corrine Constable, life has not become quieter as the girls get older.
"They say it gets easier as they get older but it's just as busy, just different busy. They're 12 going on 17," Mrs Constable said.
The decision to send the girls to Kavanagh earlier had been the right one, as it allowed them to develop some independence and individuality.
"They're building their own personalities and not relying on the same small group of friends."
Mr Constable said the girls, who were born 11 weeks prematurely, were "certainly a handful" and had all developed different personalities. Abbey and Caitlin, the twins, continued to look very similar, while Tayler, "the singleton", had grown into her own looks, he said.
As the only man in the household, which also included his mother, he said life was interesting, but he had his "man cave" to escape to.
He was enjoying learning to drum with Tayler and all the girls enjoyed fishing at the family's holiday home in Kurow.
