I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser.

As it gets close to the end of school and beginning of summer I find us getting out of touch with the important things like family.  It seems like we are all busy doing one thing or another and don't have time to sit down for a family dinner anymore.  I think the secret to our happy family is the meals where we can sit down talk and just enjoy being together.  Life really is too short to worry about making dinner and cleaning up the kitchen some days, that's why we decided to head out to East Side Mario's and let them do the cooking thanks to #CollectiveBias!

Family Dinner Out – Secret to a Happy Family

Cheyenne and Dustin aren't picky eaters which is great so heading out to a family restaurant is a lot of fun for all of us.  The best part now is Cheyenne can read the menu and orders for herself, her latest favorite is trying all the fancy kid drinks!  For Frank and I we can relax and talk while the kids are busy with their coloring and food.  And we can enjoy a special drink too, you can't beat the $5 everyday wine and beer list at East Side Mario's!

I was pleasantly surprised at the menu and how East Side Mario's makes meals affordable for families.  If you're on a tight budget they have you covered with their Family Pizza feast where 4 can dine for $25.99, a price that your wallet will love and so will you because you don't have to cook 😉 .  There is also the Viva Value Menu that let's you pick from some of the Italian favorites and it comes with All-You-Can-Eat soup or salad and garlic homeloaf!  With so many decisions and affordable options family dinner night out just got a lot funner.

We like to start with an appetizer and now that Chey can read we leave the ordering up to her, this time around she picked the Budda Boomers which were a huge hit!  After that we all pick what we want with our All-You-Can-Eat options we are guaranteed to leave stuffed and usually have leftovers for another meal.

Since we can sit back, relax and enjoy our meal while not having to worry about the mess in the kitchen we try to do some family fun conversation.  We do our usual questions:

• highlight of the week
• what's new with you
• did anything upset you this week

And then we move on to the more fun and challenging questions!  Each of us gets to ask one question and we go around the table answering it.  Cheyenne loved it so much she even started doing this on her blog Kid Corner.  A few of the questions this week were:

• If you could turn into anything what would you be?
• If your house was on fire what 2 things would you grab?
• If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

The part that we all like the most is setting a family goal for the week.  We've done things like read a book a night, at least two family walks, family adventure, and family game night.  Our new goal is:

• no tv 3 nights of the week and do a family fun activity instead

This goal is more fun than anything because with the nice sunny weather we've been having lately going out for a walk, jumping on the trampoline or even playing some board games is a lot of fun and we get to spend more time together.  I find myself taking family time for granted and when we all have a common goal like this is reminds me how lucky I actually am.  There is nothing like a fun family dinner out to keep the family happy.  But the real secret to a happy family and the perfect dinner out is to enjoy some dessert too!

What's your favorite restaurant for a family dinner out?