Emeril Lagasse surprises a Bucks County mother

The Bucks County street was choked with cars and a TV news van Friday. Police cordoned off the end of the block.

But inside the colonial on the cul de sac in Feasterville, it was just another calm morning for Stacey and Brendan Carey and their 11-month-old sextuplets and 2-year-old daughter.

Bam went the front door. Brendan Carey asked Stacey to get it.

Emeril Lagasse stood there in a white chef's coat.

Behind him was a camera crew from ABC's Good Morning America, along with Warminster's William Tennent High marching band, neighbors, and friends.

Lagasse was there to serve Stacey Carey breakfast in bed, a quaint custom for any new mother and now a national spectacle.

Her friend Colleen DiCandeloro had nominated Carey for the Mother's Day honor for seven reasons: Patrick, Samantha, Olivia, John, Emma, and Connor, plus Julianna, who is 26 months old. Stacey Carey delivered the sextuplets on June 1. The first of the babies came home in July, the last in late October. After what Stacey Carey described as a "tough winter" with two in the hospital, all are healthy.

Lagasse's visit, which included a 15-foot camera crane and a bed hastily set up on the family's front lawn, was arranged last month.

"I only heard about it a week ago," said Brendan Carey, who said his wife had no idea about it. Considering it was 8:15 a.m., Stacey Carey looked impressively camera-ready in fresh lipstick, shoes, and a coral-colored sweater lacking any trace of spit-up.

"I thought I was going to breakfast with a friend of mine," she said later. "That was a good thing so I wouldn't be standing there in my pajamas."

She took a leave from her job as a math and computer teacher at Tennent in January 2011, hence the appearance by the band.

"Did you how much you're loved?" Lagasse asked Carey as he led her outside.

"I do now," she replied.

Lagasse served her a plate of waffles and strips of candied bacon, and a smoothie. "She needs a daiquiri," someone called out. Like any busy mother, Carey did not eat it then and there. "Oh, I ate it later, after everything calmed down," she said.

Lagasse also delivered a nonedible "diaper cake" (the couple and their volunteers go through 45 changes a day) plus an oversize $5,000 check and breakfast for a year, all courtesy of Thomas' English Muffins.

Contact Michael Klein at mklein@philly.com.