I’M THE BEST! I WAS HERE FIRST!

STORY: LEIGH NEELY PHOTO: FRED LOPEZ

Most siblings fight. However, if an outsider goes after one of them, you can bet they’ll band together and turn on the outsider. The relationships between siblings is different from any relationship you’ll form with another person.

The children of Steve and Debbie Munz are all busy with various individual interests, but they manage to do things together whenever they can.

Lane is 20 and attends college at Webber International University in Lake Wales. Away from home most of the week, he’s still a good sibling when in town. “Love means having to take my sister her lunch every day when I’m home from school,” Lane says.

It seems his sister Abbie, 17, a student at The Villages High School, loves Chick-Fil-A. When Lane’s not in town, she has a lot of other family members, friends’ mothers, and grandmothers who sub for him.

He takes his responsibilities as older brother very seriously. “I feel I need to keep them out of trouble,” he says. “They usually argue, and I try to separate them. I end up getting in trouble.”

Gralynn, 12, is a student at The Villages Charter School, and, typical of the oldest child, Lane believes his little sister gets in less trouble for doing the same things he did.

“I feel like I was the experimental child. They figured out what to do right with me,” he says.

All three children love animals—their two dogs watched and monitored everything during the interview—and there’s a deer herd on the property. Lane, Abbie, and Gralynn all help with the animals, which are raised here to restock wildlife preserves.

Lane goes on to say there’s no such thing as down time when you’re raising animals. “I remember one night it was raining hard, and a tree fell down. Me and my dad and our manager had to go out and saw branches off the tree and fix the fence,” Lane says.

When asked about some of their favorite memories, all but one story involved travel. It seems Abbie was the victim of the classic “you’re adopted” prank that siblings often pull.

“It was her 13th or 14th birthday,” Gralynn says, “and we decorated her room.”

“I came home from dance, and my entire room was covered with streamers and balloons,” Abbie says.

“They’re always telling me I’m adopted, so I decided to let her celebrate ‘Happy Adoption’ day,” Gralynn says.

The Munz children say the travel stories are their favorites because they get to spend so much time together.

Lane recalls the family’s trip to New York City for his graduation. “It was great having the family there. We went exploring, walked everywhere, and rode the subway. We saw ‘The Lion King,’ which was amazing. That was my favorite movie when I was little,” he says.

“He kept saying he wanted to meet a celebrity,” Abbie adds. “And finally, we met Kevin Hart at the airport when we were on our way home.”

Gralynn’s favorite trip was to The Keys, where she got to ride a jet ski, and Abbie recalled a trip to San Francisco, where her siblings fell asleep as soon as the plane took off. She was the only one awake when the pilot announced they had to return to Orlando because there was a problem with the plane. “I was scared when we were landing,” she says. “And they were asleep.”

Is there competition? Always, the three siblings admit.

“They do pageants, and when one wins and the other one doesn’t, it’s not a happy day in our house,” Lane says.

“I’m the best basketball player,” Abbie adds with a smile.

“She means she didn’t get an injury,” Gralynn says.

“Getting an injury doesn’t mean you’re a bad player,” Lane reminds her.

They also compete when they go fishing together—who catches the first one, the biggest one, and the most fish.

All three of the kids have been “Sumter County Royalty.” Lane was Tiny Mr. Sumter County, and Abbie is 2016 Teen Miss Sumter County, and Gralynn was Sumter County Princess in 2014.

Steve and Debbie Munz are proud parents, and with three good reasons.