College Basketball #SnackMadness Prep

For those who read my blog regularly you know that we’re huge University of Kentucky college sports fans.  So this time of year – the college basketball season and the following Tournament – is especially fun for us.  The Cats aren’t exactly lighting up the boards this year (which is not usual for us – the University of Kentucky basketball team is the winningest team in college basketball history) so I’m not even sure that we’ll see them in the tournament.  Of course our fingers are still crossed that they will, but even if they don’t make it, we’ll still be watching the games.

When you have teenagers life can be a little unpredictable.  You never know when they’re going to call and say “Oh, by the way, I’m bringing five friends over to watch the games”.  And if you have teenagers – especially teen boys – you know that filling the pit they call a stomach isn’t easy.  Carrot sticks and pretzels aren’t going to go very far.  Fortunately we have a Walgreens just down the road – literally like a mile – that’s easy to pop into and grab last minute party supplies.

In addition to being convenient another reason I like shopping at Walgreens is their Balance Rewards program.  Every 1000 points you earn is the equivalent to $1 in shopping credit.  You can redeem them once you hit 5000 points and the savings you’ve earned comes right off your bill at the checkout.  Easy in and out, great sale prices, quickly earn rewards points – not quite the same as winning the tournament but still pretty awesome.  So I decided to stop in and get stocked up for the first few games.  Even if we didn’t have anyone drop in to watch with us we needed snacks, too, right?

Before I left I asked if anyone had any requests.  Reese’s Pieces was a unanimous choice of the 16-and-up crowd while Bubbles, after careful thought (she does this cute thing with her finger on her chin and goes “Um….”), chose yogurt.  We already had plenty of yogurt, but I did pick up a few theater boxes of Reese’s Pieces as well as a bag of them for a fun snack I wanted to make.  I also picked up Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, a couple of pizzas, lots of Coke Zero, and other assorted snacks.  You can see my entire shopping trip here in my Google+ album.

Walgreens truly makes it easy to throw a last-minute viewing party.  And with the money I saved using Balance Rewards I think I’m going to put together a few small “snack packs” to send back to both of my brothers, plus a friend, in Maine.  They are huge college basketball fans, as well, and always get together with their friends for bracket parties, watching the games, talking about the games, talking about the brackets – well, you get the idea!

In addition to all the goodies I picked up from Walgreens we also have the Madness Munch that I made using popcorn, Reese’s Pieces, and some other ingredients.  Bubbles helped me put it together and was very proud of the results.  She wanted to “show Daddy, show Sissy, show Bro” what she “helped Mama make”.  I love having a little helper in the kitchen!  And now we’re ready for the college basketball tournament to start!

Do you watch college basketball?  Will you be having your own viewing party this year?

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® and Walgreens #cbias #SocialFabric