Career Change to Management Consulting Doable?

Just as the title states, I wanted to get the forums input if a career change to management consulting is doable for me and also to get a little more information. A little background of myself:

I am 32 years old, married, and just had my first baby. I am a mechanical engineer with 8 years of experience working in product development, support, and design. The companies that I have been with range from startup to mid-size. I graduated from a local university that is known for their engineering program locally but is ranked in the top #70 nationally. About a year ago, the thought of a different career started to creep into my mind. I enjoy what I do but I just......want something else. After mulling over all the different career options I had, I feel like management consulting is something that I want to do. I enjoy solving problems but want to do it from a higher level. The way a business runs and the decisions they make has always intrigued me. I usually find myself brainstorming on how the company I am with at the time can do things more efficiently from an operations and financial view.

With that being said, I have several questions:

1) Simply put, am I too old or too late in my career to try and make a change to management consulting? From what I have read so far, it seems like a lot of people that just graduated or have only 1-3 years of industry experience make the move to management consulting.

2) What would be the best way for me to get into management consulting? Would it be best to get an MBA first? I have been contemplating going back to get my MBA but it will be part time and not from a top school. If I make the move without an mba, will I be brought in at the associate/analyst level?

3) I did not see many threads regarding boutique firms. What is the view of working a boutique? Would I be able to move to one of the bigger companies after getting some experience in a boutique firm?

4) Would I be able to find a place that has a decent work life balance where I am not on a 345 schedule? Working late hours and traveling is fine with my wife and I but being gone for 3/4 days out of the week for several weeks straight might be tough.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and I appreciate any responses.