Since Ben and I didn’t have tickets to the opening game of the Iowa Hawkeyes’ football season yesterday, we brought the game, and the ultimate home tailgate, to us!

Instead of huddling in a tiny tent somewhere in Iowa City while it was poured nearly the entire game, we setup shop in our cozy, dry garage. (Yes, we were those neighbors for the day! )

I laid out food and drinks galore, while Ben setup a tv to watch our boys take on Tennessee Tech. This is the way to do it!!!

We masterminded the whole indoor tailgate party on Friday night circa 9pm, a couple Skinny Girl Margaritas (her) and Hoptoberfests (him) deep, which didn’t leave us a lot of time to cook much of anything. Instead I opted for buying the most basic, crowd-pleasing food options for the wide variety of people we had  invited to stop by.

A plethora of munchies,

including Parmesan Garlic Popchips (YUM!),

freshly sliced peaches dusted with powdered sugar,

assorted veggies & dips,

smoked baby back ribs,

and White Chocolate Covered Popcorn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, this stuff is like crack. I don’t even know if I’ll ever be able to make it again because my hand was in the bowl ALL. DAY. LONG. It was AMAZING (the popcorn, not the fact that I ate about 16 cups of it!) FYI – I used puffcorn instead of popcorn. UNBELIEVABLE!

Our guests, including my parents, started trickling in about 10:30am for an 11am kickoff.

We grabbed a drink and got ready for another great season of college football!

Our boys played relatively well, and won, considering the fact that it rained the entire game. The fans looked like they were having a great time regardless, but you know I have an irrational hatred for getting rained on. I was so glad to be home!

Friends and more family trickled in and out throughout the game and the day.

And at one point the rain stopped long enough for Ben to get an impromptu haircut!

In the driveway.

Please don’t judge us!

Oh boys, no, do it this way!

Oh, tailgate shenanigans!

Back to business.

Aaron, our barber, cut Ben’s super long hair into a mohawk to rock for the day.

But the resulting rat tale was just too much for anyone to look at longer than a few seconds.

All cleaned up!

The festivities lasted all through the afternoon, evening AND night, and Ben and I didn’t hit the hay until nearly 12 hours after we started.

Party animals! Who are we?!

We woke up feeling surprisingly good, and are off on a loooong, LOOOOONG, walk to burn off some of those extra calories. Gah – I forgot what an ish-show tailgating can be! Oh well, no regrets!

See ya!

~~~~~

What’s your favorite tailgate treat?