Natalie “Nadya” Suleman — a.k.a Octomom — celebrated her 50th birthday with her nearest and dearest.
Suleman took to social media on Sunday, July 13, and marked the milestone by sharing a photo of her on a couch, flanked by eight of her 14 children.
“Couldn’t imagine spending my birthday anywhere but home, surrounded by loved ones,” she captioned the Instagram group shot. “Thank you kids for making this day so special; and to my eldest (who are not in the photo per usual), thank you for the unique gifts, though I’m most grateful for your quality time and love.”
She added, “These moments I spend with you all each day make me so happy and blessed to be your mom. I love you ❤️.”
In 2009, Suleman made headlines when she gave birth to octuplets via IVF. Those octo-babies, Noah, Maliyah, Isaiah, Nariyah, Jonah, Makai, Josiah and Jeremiah, are now 16 years old. She is also the mother of six older children: Elijah (born in 2001), Amerah (born in 2002), Joshua (born in 2003), Aiden (born in 2005) and fraternal twins Calyssa and Caleb (born in 2006).
Earlier this year, Suleman exclusively told Us Weekly how much money she spends to raise her kids.
“We find a lot of things on sale. I budget really well, and we all eat very, very, healthfully,” she shared with Us in March. “I focus mainly on what matters — the plant-based whole foods, the fruits and vegetables.”
Recently, an episode of the Lifetime docuseries Confessions of Octomom revealed that Suleman’s grocery bill at Gelson’s supermarket was $366.94.
“I spend that maybe every other day,” she told Us. “So it’s still $4,000 or $5,000 a month on groceries on average. And now, if we went above and beyond and we got extras and extra food, we could easily be $10,000 a month. Because of the budgeting, it’s about half.”
Suleman candidly addressed the financial realities of providing for her family.
“It’s food, rent, bills and repeat. Food, rent, bills,” she said. “They grow and then the food they need grows as well. In the beginning, I wasn’t spending a quarter of that. Now it’s more.”
She hoped that her new reality series would offer a different view of her than the tabloids have presented over the years.
“I want [viewers to] not only to take away the truth of who we are as a family and how close-knit we are and how strong our relationships are and how protective we are one another, and that there’s nothing we won’t do for each other, but I want them to take away or glean out something from our family that they can apply to their own lives,” Suleman said. “I want people to be able to learn something valuable that they can apply to themselves.”
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