Travel Stories

Even though we have four year old quadruplets and a six year old son - we CAN STILL GO OUT TO EAT. We got so many looks this weekend in Pittsburgh from amazed individuals that we were ACTUALLY out in public with our kids... and get this... they actually behave while we are at the restaurants. Whoa! If you are ever out about town and see a family with high order multiples take this note - you can't say anything to them that they have not heard before. Honestly. You are not clever. You are not funny. You are not original. But I digress...

Here are several stories of annoying people that we encountered in our escapades to The Steel City.

Dumbest. Waitress. Ever.
Picture our family sitting at a booth. Geana, Kurt, and five kids. All of the ketchup, sugar, salt, pepper, utensils, jelly, etc. are strategically situated so that the kids don't bother them prior to our food arriving. It was a six seater booth so we were pretty crammed in there - which is fine. We do it all the time. We only really get annoyed when the waitress neglects to take our dirty plates away and the dishes overwhelm our space.

We place our order:
Kurt - Breakfast Smile: Eggs, toast hashbrowns
Geana - Same
Kids: Some semblance of pancakes, french toast, and muffins. The majority of the kids had pancakes.

Well our dipshit waitress decides that it would be a good idea to BRING THE SYRUP EARLY! That's right - bring the stickiest, sugarfilled substance to our table 10 minutes BEFORE we are planning on using it. Are you kidding me? I know... I couldn't believe it either. I took a picture.

Well - because our kids are extremely well behaved they didn't touch it after we told them not to. I am still amazed at this lady.

War for Seats:
Saturday evening was spent going out with my parents, sister, brother in-law, Geana, and the kids to Quaker Steak & Lube (quite possibly the best wings/ribs place on earth). My sister and Justin (BIL) went ahead first while we were at Pap's (about a 3 minute drive away). She told them "Morris party of 11" and they gave us a 45 minute wait. Rather than have the kids at the restaurant lobby, we stayed at Pap's for another 25 to 30 minutes... when Melissa called us. The call went something like this:

Melissa - Guess what? Another party of 11 just came in and they told us that they are giving our table to them unless our entire party gets here before their entire party.

Kurt - WHAT!?

M - Yup - they said that's their policy.

K - That's a bullshit policy.

M - They don't seem to be budging on it, though. You guys should haul ass and get here ASAP.

K - Well - my policy is to keep my kids confined as long as possible in order to save their vestibule from the wrath of four year old quadruplets - but that's fine.... it's on now. We're on our way.

We loaded the kids up as fast as we could - sans coats, gloves, hats, etc... there just wasn't time. So we jumped into the van and hi-tailed it over to The Quaker Steak.

About three minutes later we pull into the parking lot and unload into the lobby. We didn't make it. Our table was gone. Our solution - as we sat there in the lobby at 7pm went something like this:

Kurt: "Hey guys I see presents over there under that Christmas tree. There looks like there is enough for all of you - take a look..."

Quads & Sammy: "AWESOME!"

Chaos ensued. A blur of brightly colored sweaters headed, en mass, to the Christmas tree. Luckily saner heads prevailed and stepped into the kids' path before they made it over to the quaint tree with the nicely decorated presents underneath. We were seated 5 minutes later.


Our trip was a blast. We had tons of fun!

Pittsburgh Holiday Parade

One may ask themselves, "Self - what might you consider the best part about the Pittsburgh Celebrate the Season Parade?" The answer would be this...


Steely McBeam stealing your kid's horns!


I have to say - Steely McBeam is starting to grow on me. At first I hated him. You know - the Steelers are above all of that stupid mascot/cheerleader crap. Well - my kids liked him so I guess he's doing his job. Especially if he can convince them to root for the Steelers and not the Eagles.

Gluttony & Monkeys

We spent Thanksgiving with my family in Pittsburgh and had incredible amounts of turkey, stuffing, beer, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and some other things. The afternoon and evening was spent at my cousin Eric's house. He has a boxer/rotweiler mix who Robby just fell in love with (go figure). The kids were all a bit nervous at first but by the end of the day they were letting him lick their faces and feeding him from the table. His name is Monroe:


After dinner we headed to Melissa's house to crash... which we did successfully. We woke up this morning with nothing planned so we decided to head to Eat 'n Park for breakfast. If you have not experienced the Eat 'n Park breakfast buffet you are missing out on life. Man... I miss E&P and I hope that they, someday, expand east of Harrisburg. All of the kids ate for free and I had unlimited eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, fruit, french toast, waffles... and following Thanksgiving Dinner - I probably weigh an extra 10 pounds...

Then we headed off to the Pittsburgh Zoo with Aunt Melissa and Uncle Justin. BTW - I've been to Pittsburgh twice in the past several months and last time we went to the Children's Museum for free on our reciprical membership to the Garden State Discovery Museum - and today we went to the PGH Zoo for free b/c of our membership to the Philly Zoo. I love it! Anyway there were some cute baby elephants that the kids liked to watch and the polar bears were putting on a show for us today.


I'm sure you all find this enthralling - I'm just trying to get back into the habit of writing more regularly... and if you don't like what I'm writing about... click away from this page...

until next time!

A Tale of Two Parties

About 12 hours after my last post I am sitting down to make this one. Whew! What a long day. The kids just went to bed and will probably sleep for the next 3 days...

We left the house around noon and headed into South Philly to go to Tunnels of Fun, and after taking the wrong exit off of I95 and quickly buzzing by Terminals A thru F at Philadelphia International Airport, we successfully landed at Tunnels of Fun on 20th Street in South Philly. This place has moved to the top of my list of places to take the kids. It is very similar to Keller's Gym and Jumpers but on a MUCH smaller scale and for MUCH smaller children. There is an age limit of 7 years old at TOF. It is about the size of a house, not a warehouse like some of these other places. They only have several small jungle gym set-ups and a single party room in the back (with seats for adults, too) but it is definitely enough. Also - the set-up is condusive to watching high order multiples while simultaneously allowing them to run free. But enough about the place... the party itself was awesome! The kids loved the balls, especially Anna, which was great because she usually hates these types of places. Before we knew it it was 3pm and it was time to load up and head over to Oasis for Dominica's party at 4pm... but wait... we made a mistake - that party doesn't start until 5:30pm! We have one and a half hours to kill and not enough time to go home and make it worth while... What should we do?!

Go to The Mall.

Yup - we gluttons were extra gluttonous today. Black Friday weekend and we about to brave the mall with all 5 kids. We knew Santa would be there (and the kids happened to be dressed nicely for the parties) and hopefully we could find some great sales as well... a win win situation.



The kids were great, by the way. They got to see Santa and stayed in their stollers the entire time (except for when they sat on the Big Man's lap. After Tunnels of Fun, I think they were happy to take a load off for awhile.

Onto Oasis. If Tunnels of Fun is nice little getaway for you and your toddler, Oasis is the freakin' mothership. This place makes Disney World look small. It is located in a HUGE warehouse with more slides, jungle gyms, and tunnels than Rhode Island has roads. This place is sent from God if you are a kid... not so much if you are the parent of 4 three year-olds and a five year old and your job is keeping track of them all. It as a really fun party but this place was work. It was geared for all ages - meaning they had stuff for little kids all the way up to big kids. (Like one of the kid's dad's who came to the party and was introduced to Geana and I as, "That's my husband over there - playing Pac Man." No lie - he was playing Pac Man for the rest of the time - 3 hours. Play time for kids... still playing Pac Man. Dinner time... still playing Pac Man. Singing Happy Birthday... still playing Pac Man. Eating cake time... still playing Pac Man. Dude - it's a kid's party - play with your freakin' kid! You only have ONE you lazy shmuck! Father's like that make me sick. Dads like that are who gives us hard workin' Dads a bad name!) Anyway - it was a good time!

We got home, put the kids up, blogged, and now I'm turning in. For you see - tomorrow is Justin's birthday party in Princeton at 11:30am @ the local YMCA. No rest for the weary 'round these parts. This weekend I will have:

Celebrated birthdays at 3 separate parties.
Ate 1 Thanksgiving Dinner
Attended a parade
Set-up my TV in the basement
Did a bunch of laundry
and...
watched ZERO football games... good thing the Steelers play Monday Night.

Whew! Good night, all.

A Day of Thanks

Yesterday we went to Geana's Mother's house to celebrate Thanksgiving. We haven't had a holiday over there for awhile. It was nice to revisit the old stomping ground (Geana and I lived there for awhile when were were engaged and saving for a house). It was warm enough for the kids to play in the driveway before we ate and they all had a blast playing with Cousins Justin, Gianna, Alex, and Gabbi. Lots of food, laughs, and good times. Here is what the kids were thankful for:

Sammy - Family
Robby - Poop
James - Chocolate
Anna - Turkey
Ella - Turkey Day

We started off the day by going into town to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade. The kids saw Santa. Gianna and her friend, Megan, liked seeing some teenie bopper musicians that I have no idea who they are. It made me feel old... also made me thankful that my girls are still only 3 years old. The most interesting part of the day was when we were at Penrose Diner after the parade. It was about 12:00 and we were heading there for an early lunch, expecting to be eating T-Giving dinner at 5:30 or 6:00. Just after ordering lunch, Geana's mother called. The turkey was done several hours before it was expected to be done (we're still not really sure how.) Now we were eating at 2:00 instead of 5:30. It was too late to cancel lunch so we instituted the "Don't Eat Your Fries Rule". This rule allows daddy to confiscate any and all fries before the meal is eaten so that the kids don't eat too much. The only side effect of this rule is that Daddy inevitably eats most (or all) of the fries himself... in addition to my lunch. I call it "Taking One For The Team" but Geana calls it "Kurt Being a Pig"... either way... the kids were safe from showing up at G-Mom's with full stomachs.

As for me - I'm thankful for a lot of things this Thanksgiving. I still have a great job, I still have 5 wonderful kids, I'm still married to the best wife/woman/mother/homemaker, etc.... and this year - I have a clean living room, too! Life is good!