Be Different, Act Normal by Lorie

Chocolate Nutella Valentine Heart Candy

2012-01-31T09:00:00.000-06:00

Chocolate Nutella Valentine Hearts from Homespun With Love

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Burlap Bunting for Valentine's Day [DIY Valentines Decorations]

2012-01-31T06:00:00.000-06:00

Valentine's Day Burlap Bunting from Little Birdie Secrets

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Seven Days of Love Treat [Valentine]

2012-01-31T03:00:00.000-06:00

Seven Days of Love Treat from The Dating Divas

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Cookie Valentines [Valentine Cookie Recipe]

2012-01-30T18:00:00.000-06:00

Cookie Valentine from Eighteen25

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Superbowl 7 Layer Football Dip

2012-01-30T12:00:00.000-06:00

Superbowl Party Dip from Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons

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$100 Olive Garden Giveaway [Real People, Real Moment]

2012-01-30T11:00:00.000-06:00

We love to eat out as a family and typically hit one of our favorite restaurants once a week. We love a lot of local places, but most of them have identical kid's menus. Chicken fingers and french fries, hamburgers and french fries, and macaroni and cheese that comes out of a box.When BlogHer asked if we wanted to head to Olive Garden as a family, I was more than happy to take my kids out to dinner for some yummy Italian-inspired food. The restaurant has a comfortable, kid-friendly atmosphere, and I am pretty much in love with their kid's menu. My two picky girls love that they can create their own pasta bowls, and I love that there are no french fries on the menu. Both of their meals came with fruit, and all of the kids enjoyed the yummy, unlimited salad and breadsticks before their meal arrived. A fruit and a vegetable from the kid's menu, imagine that! The games on the kid's menu were pretty fun too. I may or may not have picked up a few new Italian words.

We also love their kid-friendly, non-alcoholic drink options. It makes dinner extra special for the kids when they get a fun drink, too. Olive Garden offers Italian and Cream Sodas, Berry Acqua Fresca, Frullato Smoothies, and our choice this trip, the Strawberry-Mango Limonata. Lou may or may not have had two.

As for the adults at the table, I tried their new Baked Pasta Romana with Chicken, and my hubby went the beef route with the Steak Gorgonzola-Alfredo. Both were delicious, and there were plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day. In fact, I am pretty sure we left with just as much food as we ate while we were there. I even packed the kids' leftovers in their lunchbox the next day, including a little Limonata in Lou's thermos.

Olive Garden's new dinner special is a 3 course Italian dinner for $12.95. It includes soup or salad, your choice of 5 new entrees, and one of their Dolcini desserts, perfect for a date night without the kiddos. You can check out the 5 dinner options at Olivegarden.com/specials, and at that price you could get a couple of dates out of a $100 Olive Garden gift card.

Would you like to win one? To be entered for a chance to win, check out Olivegarden.com to explore the full menu and find a restaurant near you, and then leave a comment letting me know what item you would like to try off of their menu!

Rules: No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods: a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry. This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 1/23/12 - 3/18/12.
Also, visit the Olive Garden page on BlogHer.com to check out the other blogger reviews and more chances to win!

Disclosure - This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Olive Garden. All opinions expressed are my own.

DIy Ombre Sugar Hearts

2012-01-30T09:00:00.000-06:00

DIY Ombre Sugar Hearts from The Wedding Chicks

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Lace Crepes Valentines Breakfast

2012-01-30T06:00:00.000-06:00

Lace Heart Crepes from Duhlicious

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Out Of This World Valentine for Kids

2012-01-30T03:00:00.000-06:00

You're Out Of This World Valentine from Zakka Life

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Show and Tell Saturday - 01/28/12

2012-01-28T00:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Show and Tell Saturday!!

I just realized that last week I put the date as 2011. I have been SO CAREFUL about writing 2012 on everything. I guess I wasn't doing as well as I thought!

So where did January go? I can't believe the first month of the year has already flown by! I am ready for Valentine's Day though. And by that I mean I finally took down my Christmas decorations. What about you? Are you ready for Valentine's Day? What have you been working on? I can't wait to see your projects from this week!

Grab a button and link up your favorite project from last week.

Remember to link directly to your post and make sure to visit some of the other participants!!

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