I've often go out with my son's family, usually 4 to 6 of us.

For meals, I dehydrate foods in advance, so all I need to do for cooking is boil water, add it to the food and let it sit in a cozy 10-15 minutes. You can achieve the same results with supermarket ingredients. Check out trailcooking.com, "Sarbar's" website. I need only one stove (in my case, Primus Micron canister stove, but an alcohol stove would work as well).

For cooking/eating I take one 2-liter kettle, a spoon and a cup per person. Instead of bowls I use 2-cup Ziploc bowls and cut the rims off. Weight is 0.6 oz. each instead of the 1.5 oz. of a GSI plastic bowl. I take a frying pan only if I'm fishing.

For tents, we use the Tarptent Rainshadow 2, a 3-person tent, the Tarptent Squall 2, a two person tent. I (Granny) sleep in my own solo tent. Of course we could use two Rainshadows instead! Tarptents are economical, roomier and much lighter than the standard double-wall tent. These are fully enclosed tents with floor and netting. If none of you use trekking poles, you can get poles from Tarptent to hold them up.

Have you checked out the articles on the home page of this site, left hand column? There is lots of advice there on lightening your load. There's also a good article there on hiking with kids by Penny S. that will be especially helpful in coping with the baby.

There is also a forum section here devoted to backpacking with kids. Page on down below the Photography section.

I think you have a good plan of using multiple tents. Try to keep the weight down, depending on how old the kids are and how much they can tote. It will also depend on where you are and what kind of weather you expect to encounter.

You might consider one bombproof three person shelter and two lighter ones. My reasoning: if everything goes to H***, the big shelter will hold all of you in a pinch while you wait for it to blow over. A freestanding 3 person tent could serve as the main one, while two Tarptents or similar for the small ones. Look at the sponsors' websites (links to the left) for examples.

Cooking. I solo camp and have a Primus Micron, like OM has, but I also have several liquid fuel stoves. For a group of people, I think a liquid fuel stove would be better or maybe a JetBoil with the big pot on it (I'm not that keen on the JetBoil, but for a group it should work fine). I use a liquid fuel stove in winter and carry my Micron as a spare. You could go old school and use something like a Svea 123 white gas stove and Sigg Tourist kit, if you can find one.

Ah, yes, but then I need to acquire a food dehydrator. Until I see one at a yard sale, that isn't happening.

Andrew

I'm taking my two older ones (6 and 8) with me and am dealing with many of the issues you're facing.

I'm working on lightening my kitchen - your interm and final solutions are of great interest to me.

I've found that margerine dishes work well for plates/bowls, as do the ziplock disposable bowls - and they stack well. GSI has a nice set of stackable hot/cold plastic cups with handles: http://www.backcountry.com/gsi-outdoors-infinity-stacking-cup that I bought for the car camping kit, and won't give up in the backpack.

I chose a MSR Dragonfly stove for stability, but fight with the weight cost, and question if I'd be better off with a pair of alcohol stoves, or a Pocketrocket (or similar iso butane stove) with a pot support to accomodate a larger (2 or 4 liter) pot. My kids like Kraft mac and cheese, and I don't think the "just boil water" approach is going to work for family trips for some time - at least not for us.

My converted from car camping pot set has frying pan lids. I see the value, but question the cost in weight. A seperate frying pan, to be brought when the menu warrants, seems more reasonable now. My kids like dry cereal better than pancakes for breakfast.

On OregonMouse's recommendation, I bought a TarpTent Rainshadow 2 tent and like it. I have not used it in a downpour yet, however. Given your kid's ages, two of these might solve your problem at a cost of 5lbs, and allow you to keep the older three kids together and the baby with you and your wife...

I've liked the Mountain Hardware Lamina series of bags for spring/summer/fall use. Depending on your lows in Florida, a Lamina 45 might be all you need, they are on the lighter side, and have been available at a cheap price. If you have the money, there are many nicer suggestions for bags in the threads here on the site - I'm just not yet willing to pay Western Mountaineering's prices for a bag to give to a child.

Sincerely

Steadman

If you're leaning toward the Pocket Rocket, you might want to wait until January or February. According to the press release on their website (http://media.cascadedesigns.com/pdf/MSR%202012%20Stoves%20Release%20NA.pdf) they are releasing an updated version of the Pocket Rocket that is more compact (so perhaps not as tall or tippy?) and has beefier pot supports (for those larger family-size pots?), and it will be available around January. They didn't say what the price would be; depending on that, you might be able to get a Pocket Rocket and one of their "universal" canister stands for less money and accomplish the same thing. (Their stand is really nice, well thought out and easy to use.)

Another alternative is the MSR Superfly - four really strong supports, and a spreader burner head that works better with larger pots. I've had a Pocket Rocket for years, using it with my Titan kettle for a solo cookset; the PR's concentrated flame pattern is sized proportional to the Kettle's small bottom. I use the Titan 2-pot set when I'm sharing gear with a group, and the PR's flame is too concentrated for even hearting - but the Superfly's spreader flame is just the right size. I've philandered on my Pocket Rocket with a Snow Peak Giga and a Jetboil, but I keep going back to the PR as my go-to stove - a great balance of light weight, simplicity, reliability, and sturdiness.

On our family trips I take a gsi dualist and a haulite kettle. We usually cook in the dualist and boil water in the kettle for hotdrinks. I know its not the lightest option out there but it works for us. Also since we usually just do over nighters I take a trangia alcohol stove since it can simmer and a supercat stove to boil waterwater in the kettle.

Ill have to look into those bowls. Im sure they are a lot lighter then the gsi nesting bowls/mugs. What mugs do you take?