The facts of life
• 20 boys, two parents and four dogs live in the 4,000-square-foot Silcock house.
• The five oldest children, 18 to 25, live in nearby apartments.
• There are 14 aides on staff. Most work full-time. Aides cost $14,000 to $16,000 a month.
• Belles and Silcock rise at 5 a.m. and go to sleep between 11 p.m. and midnight.
• They have two full-sized washer/dryers and do 30 loads of laundry a day; they use about 80 pounds of detergent a week.
• They own five vans: three minivans with lowered floors for wheelchairs, one with eight seats and one that seats six plus two wheelchairs. Gas costs $2,000 a month.
• A simple breakfast: 21 bananas, six boxes of cereal, 3 gallons of milk and 11/2 gallons of orange juice. For scrambled eggs, they start with 30 eggs.
• Weekly bills for groceries and supplies run $1,250 to $1,400, much of that at Costco or Sam's Club, though they also shop at Trader Joe's and a produce store. An outing to McDonald's runs at least $75.
• The electricity bill is more than $500 a month.
• Silcock and Belles try to provide new toys and stylish clothing, but the boys often wear hand-me-downs. The garage is filled with bins of clothing sorted by size.
• Silcock and Belles have a combination lock on their bedroom door. Everyone in the house, including the youngest child, knows the code.
• All the Silcock boys have acting portfolios, and several have appeared in TV shows and movies, including Boston Public and The Pretender. They will have access to their earnings when they turn 18.
• On Thanksgiving Day, they will all go to Knotts Berry Farm for an annual brunch. The entire Silcock-Belles clan will attend, including extended family: Belles' parents, the birth parents and siblings of two boys, and one boy's former foster parents.
Tons of photos of them here... Some great photos!
http://www.usatoday.com/life/gallery/2003-11-25-25kids/flash.htm