Kimberly Fugate was expecting triplets, which was unusual enough, as she was about to turn 42 years old and had used no fertility drugs. But when she underwent a cesarian section on February 8, doctors found four baby girls -all identical to each other!

Dr. James Bofill, a professor of maternal fetal medicine at the hospital said the odds of conceiving identical quadruplets is astonishingly rare, especially in a case like Fugate's, where she became pregnant without the use of fertilization drugs or treatments.

"The odds of spontaneous quadruplets is one in every 729,000 live births," Bofill said. "The chances of having identical quadruplets [are] almost incalculable."

The quads came almost 13 weeks early, and will probably remain in the hospital until May, their original due date. Fugate and her husband Craig already have a ten-year-old daughter.  

(Image credit: University of Mississippi Medical Center)

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Parents will relate to this, especially this winter. There are probably plenty more snow days ahead before spring finally gets here. The Holderness family of Durham, North Carolina, made a music video about their life on snow days -during a snow day this week. I went through plenty of snow days just like this, but now when the kids want to go play in the snow, I just say, “Okay, bye!” -via Viral Viral Videos

A ten-year-old boy in Norway woke up before dawn and decided to take a drive to see his grandmother, 30 kilometers away! He took his toddler sister, who was also awake, with him. A few miles from home, snowplow driver Bjørn Hagen (pictured) spotted the family car in a ditch. The boy flagged down the snowplow to ask for a tow. Hagen was not equipped for that, and, unbeknownst to the boy, called the police instead.

He later told another snowplough operator that he was a dwarf and had wound up in the ditch when making a hasty U-turn to go home for his driving licence.
   
The young boy and his 18-month-old sister, who was sitting on the passenger seat without a seat belt, were unharmed and cheerful when they were found.

The children were returned to their parents, who were unaware of what had happened while they slept. Although not as clear, this machine translation is a more colorful account of the incident, from Dagbladet (the best-named newspaper ever). -via Arbroath

I had to laugh, because I'm getting pretty close to that point where they actually move out. I might not laugh so much if my kids were still this little. There's a fine line between providing security and providing independence. This is from Lunarbaboon.

(Photo: Parker Police)

A 10-year old girl and her mother went to the office of the state Division of Motor Vehicles in Parker, Colorado on Monday. While they were waiting, the girl went back to their SUV to get something out. Shortly thereafter, the SUV crashed into waiting area with the girl behind the wheel.

The girl says that she climbed from the back seat into the front seat of the SUV, which then “just went.” It travelled about 20 to 30 feet before coming to a stop when the girl’s frantic mother told her how to push the brakes.

The mother insists that she did not leave the motor running. Police cited the girl for careless driving.

-via Jalopnik

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Isn’t it wonderful when you see children react to something they’ve never experienced before with joy instead of fear? Nicole Byon captured her 15-month-old daughter sister Kayden discovering the feel of rain for the first time, which she found delightful and fascinating -and went back out in over and over. May you always look at the world with that sense of wonder, kid. The accompanying song is "In My Arms" by Jon Foreman. -via Laughing Squid

Hey, we all have hopes and dreams for our children’s future. Most parents are smart enough to keep them in the family, lest we are proven to be embarrassingly wrong. But some parents don’t know when to keep their mouths shut, or worse yet, to turn the future into a competition. This one is from Lunarbaboon.

Stephen McLaughlin and his wife are expecting a baby girl this spring. He put up a website to let internet users suggest and vote on names for the poor little girl. The front-runner so far is Cthulhu All-Spark McLaughlin. Do you have a better idea? Let’s all be thankful that the parents reserve the right to reject what the internet decides and go with their own choice in the end. Suggest a name or vote on an existing name at Name My Daughter. -via Geeks Are Sexy

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This little guy is only 15 months old, but he manages to sink a half-dozen baskets in a row! He’ll be dribbling by the time he’s two… oh? I see, he already dribbles, but maybe he’ll grow about of that. The NCAA has rules about how old a player must be before they approach him, and so does the NBA, but the Harlem Globetrottters are not part of either organization. -via Daily Picks and Flicks

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Matt Groening is the creator behind one of the longest lasting and most lucrative animated series ever, The Simpsons, and his inspiration for Springfield and the characters who live there was a closely guarded secret, until it all came out a few years back.

Now everyone knows that Matt’s dad was named Homer, his mother was named Margaret and his sisters were named Lisa and Maggie, but what you probably don’t know is Matt’s dad was a cartoonist and amateur filmmaker as well, and papa Homer shot this darling video starring a young Matt and his sisters called The Story back in 1969.

It’s more like a well made home movie than a polished short film, but it’s great to see some of the inspiration behind Matt Groening’s future endeavors, and those young Groening kids are so darn cute!

Via Dangerous Minds

The decision to cancel school due to snow is not taken lightly, because schools have to complete a certain number of instruction days in a year. It’s usually a combination of school district topography, road conditions, and local snow-clearing systems. For example, where I live, the city school can get buses around in some snow, because the routes are only a few miles and the roads get salted. But the county schools have to send buses over long routes that are treacherous in good weather and are not maintained (often not even paved). Whether an area expects snow has a lot to do with how prepared they are to plow or salt roads. It is not cost-effective to buy and store snowplows and salt where it only snows once in a decade.  

Redditor atrubetskoy constructed a map that shows approximately how much snow is required to cancel school in the various parts of the U.S. See it full-size here. Read about the map and some of the data used at The Atlantic.

No lunch for you, deadbeats!

It's a tough economy out there, so it's understandable that the parents of forty kids at the Uintah Elementary School got behind paying the lunch balance at school. The school district decided to turn this into a teachable moment unlike any other. Apparently, the lesson was that there ain't no such thing as a free lunch, so the school seized the meals and threw them away.

"It was pretty traumatic and humiliating," mother Erica Lukes told The Salt Lake Tribune. Lukes' 11-year-old daughter had her lunch taken away from her as she stood in line at the school's cafeteria. "I think it's despicable. These are young children that shouldn't be punished or humiliated for something the parents obviously need to clear up."

Jason Olsen, spokesman for the Salt Lake City school district, tried to explain the situation:

... the district’s child-nutrition department became aware that Uintah had a large number of students who owed money for lunches. As a result, the child-nutrition manager visited the school and decided to withhold lunches to deal with the issue, he said.

But cafeteria workers weren’t able to see which children owed money until they had already received lunches, Olsen explained.

The workers then took those lunches from the students and threw them away, he said, because once food is served to one student it can’t be served to another.

No apologies though, as Olsen added "If the students were humiliated and upset, that's very unfortunate and not what we wanted to happen." He refused to call the tactic a mistake, though after a firestorm of criticism erupted, the district posted an online apology.

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The a cappella group Pentatonix (previously at Neatorama) has hit the big time -they were invited to perform on Sesame Street! They are all big fans, but can’t agree on which classic Sesame Street song is the best: “C is for Cookie” or “Rubber Ducky,” so they sang them both together. You can also see the counting song they performed for the show. -via Viral Viral Videos

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Jahmir Wallace of Phillipsburg, New Jersey, was born without arms, so he does everything with his feet. The dexterity the fifth-grader developed with his toes is serving him well as he learns to play the trumpet. But even more important is Wallace’s can-do attitude.

“My older sister used to play the piano.  So I thought maybe I should try an instrument. I thought maybe I could try and figure out new things,” he said.

-via Arbroath

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Grace Anna Rodgers was born with a genetic disorder that should have greatly impaired her life. It may have done so physically, but she's still a joyful child who loves to sing. She's become an internet sensation as videos of her home performances have gone viral.

She has Conradi-Hunermann syndrome, a genetic disorder that, Sanford Health says is, "characterized by skeletal malformations, skin abnormalities, cataracts and short stature." 1 in 400,000 babies are born with it. She will likely go deaf and develop severe scoliosis as she grows older.

But the good news is that Grace's singing is now in demand. She's booked to perform at veterans' benefit concerts in Kansas and Virginia.

You can watch more of her performances at her YouTube channel. Her renditions of "Amazing Grace" and "The Star-Spangled Banner" are particularly good.

(Photo: Grace Anna Sings)

-via 22 Words