Eating out Family of 6 style

Eating out with our family of 6 takes some strategic planning to go over well. But with attention to detail we can enjoy a meal out with 2 toddlers and 2 infants in tow.

Here our a few tips that help making eating out work for us.

1. Timing is everything. If you going out to eat get there a little earlier than whenever you have that meal at home so that the order is on the table around the same timing.

2. Have something for them to do at the table. Bring a book, or coloring book and crayons if it isn't a place that provides them. Bring a small snack for them to have will they wait for dinner.

3. Go in a get the table before bringing all the kids in. This is a must with us. I go in first tell them our situation and request a certain table. We prefer the big booths so that we can sit the car seats in the booth against the wall. Once the table is ready with all seats, high chairs and boosters then we can bring the clan in.

4. Adults in the middle with a kid on each side. We need to be able to help all the kids so sitting in the middle of the kids allows us to do this.

5. Order fast. We will only go to places where we are familiar with the menu or look at the menu ahead online. So when the waiter comes to get our drink order we order everything at the same time.

6. Eat and go! One time before the second set we went out to eat. Everything went perfectly until my husband ordered another drink... I shot him the look. And he knew what he had done. By the time the drink order got to the table the kids where melting away. So he is trying to slam the drink and we are stuck waiting on the check with two kids going down hill fast. I told him NEVER again... and now he doesn't.

 7. Do not bring a hungry baby anywhere! On Friday when we went out to dinner, we first feed the littles a 2 oz bottle as a snack. It was about 5pm, they do not eat a scheduled bottle until 7pm. Sometimes they get a little fussy before scheduled bottle time, so to ensure this did not happen we gave the 2oz before leaving. We were back home by 6:30 and we knew we would be back home by feeding time but like I said you don't take a hungry baby anywhere and you definitely don't take two hungry babies anywhere!

Here our some pictures I snapped at the Mexican Restaurant we went to Friday night.