Reason #42 why we rarely eat out as a family...

We used to eat out a lot with our kids, but haven't been the last couple of years for a number of reasons, and economics is only one of those. 

Over the weekend, after Julia and Suzanna performed wonderfully in "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" at our parish, we decided to treat everyone to dinner out.  We were treated, alright, to many of the reasons we have stopped eating out as a family as we dined at one of our favorite Mexican venues.

Before we even sat down, the screeching of the chairs being pushed, pulled and dragged across the tile floor was so loud that I was already hushing the kids...and they hadn't even begun speaking yet!

Ordering is always fun, with the bartering for what food and drinks the children will be able to get...and subsequently knock over...during the meal.  We also realized at this time that someone (who shall not be named) left the diaper bag at the church and Brian had to drive back to find it, leaving me on my own with all of the people!

Someone always has to use the restroom, and for a long time, with four girls, restroom trips were mostly my duty.  Our girls are now old enough to take themselves, and Julia was the only one who ended up actually needing to make a visit during this meal.  Unfortunately, the door on the restroom proved to be difficult to open, causing Julia to get stuck inside, finally yelling "Mommy" loud enough for us to hear from the front of the restaurant.  Brian quipped, "you do project well", in reference to her earlier performance in the pageant.  However, I don't think Julia was as amused as we were as evidenced by the tears in her eyes when Rebecca rescued her and they returned to the table as our meals were delivered.

As the first round of chips and dip was finished up, several people were wearing refried beans and we only had two of the above-mentioned drinks spilled, one of which was Zachary's.  He took it in stride, though, declaring "I can drink this" as he slurped the soda off the table with his straw!  The other drink spilled on Rebecca and Julia...adding insult to Julia's injury!  Zachary had buyer's remorse when his meal arrived, shoving his Mexican pizza away and announcing "I'm sharing with you" when he got a look at Brian's Carne Asada.  The boy does enjoy his meat!  (The Mexican pizza went home in a box.)

Jacob slept through most of the meal, but made his place in the circus known by spitting up on several of his people as we passed him around before leaving so that I could eat my meal...he waited to get me until we were packing up to leave.

As we were finishing up, and the kids were clearly showing signs of needing to vacate the premises, I was brought to tears in laughter at the absurdity of it all when Zachary loudly replied to someone's question of "What?" by yelling "Chicken butt!!!" over and over.

And THAT, dear folks, is reason number 42 why we rarely eat out as a family any longer.