Most people go for a regular ole costume. You know, something you can just purchase online or in-store that comes as a complete set, easy peasy no extra work, and next to no stress involved! That's what we always did as kids. I went as a Princess 80% of the time, and it seems on the opposite side of things, Craig went as some scary character 100% of the time. I still hate to open his costume box. Let me just say this, I do NOT do scary movies. I watched the Birds once and I think I creeped myself out for the next month. Long story short, I don't do scary movies. Arachnophobia, Ernest Scared Stupid, the Ghost of Mr. Chicken, Private Eyes, Twister, yeah they're all scary... No thank you! One day maybe I'll be brave but that day is not today! Back to the subject at hand. I discovered Craig actually likes to dress up for Halloween, and he really is good at playing his part. It took us a few years to get some momentum going, but now we are costume experts! Let me just say, it's all in the details! I'm pretty sure our Halloween costumes stress out more than Christmas shopping, and we probably spend just as much on them! Just kiddin, but there have been times... So we hope you enjoy our costume history, I said insanity in the title because honestly, we probably are! Just you wait and you'll understand what I mean!
2012- CRAIG Thinking He's Hilarious...
I dressed up as a nurse an easy and comfy costume, especially for a pregnant lady... Being a cute wife I thought Craig could go as the Doctor. Well, he did, but when he wore the costume he put his own spin on the ensemble by adding a name tag, salad tongs, baseball glove, and fake baby... He was 'DR. GUY NO'. Yep. He thought he'd be a gynecologist and 'catch our baby.' As Bridger puts it, "He's so barrassing..." Thankfully he was not given the chance to deliver Miss Mercedes... By the way, yes, he did wear this to work...
2013- FARMER, A CALF & ELVIS
I love how adventurous Craig is! He constantly cracks me up!
Mercedes was the cutest calf ever! I may be just a touch bias!
The Creativity Era Begins...
2014- Disney's MARY POPPINS
Bert- Craig. Mary Poppins- Mikenna. Mercedes was a Peacock this year.
I don't remember what got into us, there was no crazy prize to be won at some party, no real good reason why we decided to really dress up first of all but also why we put in so much time and work- I will never know! But we did, and from this year on we never looked back... I don't know who's idea Mary Poppins was, but I'm amazed we pulled it off!
This had to be one of our most time-consuming costumes ever! We knew what we wanted to dress up as, but had no idea how to achieve the look! We purchased a white doctor's coat, and white pants for Craig, then we spent days painting all those individual stripes down the jacket. We created a bow tie for him and a striped fabric wrap for his hat. You don't see it in the picture, but we even dyed a pair of socks blue just like Bert wore. Next up was Mary's dress. Don't laugh but I purchased an old wedding dress off of eBay, cut it up and created Mary's dress. I bought some cheap leather boots from the DI and painted over them with white leather paint. We actually found Craig's shoes at the DI as well! WAHOO! Mary's hat was a straw hat that we painted and added bows & tulle to. Lastly, I sewed a red corset type waistband. We spent way too much, but gosh we had so much fun with this getup!
2015 - Disney's MONSTERS, INC.
Sulley- Craig. Mike- Mikenna. Boo- Mercedes
Good Ole Monsters Inc. We love this movie at our house, and yes Craig gets choked up every time we watch it. I love it! That little sensitive side of him makes me smile. This was a hard costume. We bought a white Yeti suit, tried to dye it and it wouldn't hold the color. So we used fabric paint to paint the entire suit, spray-on polka dots, and the repaint the mask- plus added some little horns on top. I wish the mask had been a little more friendly looking, but it worked! We also created a tail and had that attached to the back of Craig. My t-shirt was handpainted, and the hard hat was yellow- so it was spray-painted, and the logo & horns added by hand. Boo was easy, other than Miss Mercedes didn't want to wear it...
2016- Disney's PETER PAN
Hook- Craig. Wendy- Mikenna. Tinkerbell- Mercedes. Peter pan- Bridger
By far the costume with the least amount of work! Our costumes were pieced together, but thankfully it wasn't too complicated! The only item we had to make was Bridger's Peter Pan hat and tied a small rope around his waist for his belt. Whala! Done!
2017- Disney's MOANA
Moana's Parents- Craig & Mikenna. Moana- Mercedes. Maui- Bridger.
Crazy Grandma- Nana
One of my FAVORITES- it has to rival Mary Poppins, but SOOO time-consuming! Mercedes outfit was purchased as a set, we added a wig, necklace, and the pig. She looked so dang cute! Then the work began. The shirts Craig and Bridger were created by Craig. He hand drew all the designs, and we even had to dye the shirts to get the skin-colored look. We made a leaf skirt for Bridger, threw on a wig, added a light-up Maui hook and he was set! I made a grass skirt for mama, added a flower and called it good...
Craig also made the necklace he wore. Get this, it was real shark teeth and shells!!!
2018- CURIOUS GEORGE
Man with Yellow Hat- Craig. Professor Wisemen- Mikenna.
Betsy- Mercedes. George- Bridger
We had just moved from Tremonton the month before Halloween, so we needed a quick and easy costume for this year! Both our munchkins LOVE Curious George, let's face it, it even gets a few giggles out of Craig. Bridger & Craig were lucky enough to have costume sets already precreated for them. Mercedes and I had to piece ours together but it was easy thanks to Amazon! The hardest part was when Mercedes decided she wanted to be 'regular' Betsy one night, and dancer Betsy for the other. Her dress was so much fun though- we sewed in a string of battery-powered lights to her ballerina skirt and it was awesome- especially at night! Probably the most stress-free costume we have done!
2019- Disney's COCO- The Rivera Family
Mr. Rivera- Craig. Mrs. Rivera- Mikenna. Mama Imelda- Mercedes. Miguel- Bridger
"OH, we're just, UN POCO LOCO!!!!!!" Yep, I was singing this song all throughout our costume-making process! If you haven't seen Coco, it's a cute one! Are you a family history buff, then you may want to add this to your collection. It definitely gave family past a different light in my mind! We spent a good week trying to pull these costumes together. Saturday was spent from 8 am- 11:53 pm perfecting this year's display. Yep, LOCO right!
Here's this break down:
Craig/Mr. Rivera- Lucky for us this was the easiest one to pull together. Craig already had the white with brown stripes dress shirt, brown dress pants, and brown dress shoes. We purchased a white apron online and then Craig dyed it with Rit Dye to get the right color of brown. He did grow a beard and shaved it down to a mustache but I couldn't stop laughing, so he shaved it and we put on a sticky mustache... Easy enough right!
Mikenna/Mrs. Rivera- Oh boy. Part of the reason for this costume was the fact that she was one of the only Disney characters that is pregnant- the only other movie we could think of was Emperors New Groove, and Craig was not up to being Patcha... It would have looked a little strange if he wore it to work, I'll give him that... Anyway, I bought a Juniors t-shirt with a floral design off of Walmart clearance, and then Craig drew in all the colorful design work on the front. I know he's talented! I did make an apron and the skirt- of which Craig did the design work again at the bottom of. He amazes me! By the way, not all Pinterest demonstrations are good ones. I learned that the hard way while trying to make that dang skirt!
Mercedes/Mama Imelda- Work. That's what that was. I found that cute dress online for about $8, it was a light blue color and we had it shipped over from China. Craig was able to get a synthetic dye- Royal Purple and dye it to what it is now! I was so dang excited it worked! The apron was also white, but it would not hold the brown dye so Craig spray painted that...He added the maroon ribbon to her waist, and then we painted the bones on a black long sleeve shirt with white fabric paint. Lastly, we did make the necklace, a bit time consuming, but well worth it!
Bridger/Miguel- Last but not least little man. His jacket was white- we had to dye it twice to get the nice deep red color, and then Craig sat and painted the white stripes down the sides. We had a pair of jeans, the shoes, and a white shirt so that was thankfully easy! The hardest part was that dang guitar. We bought a cheap ukelele online and then Craig sat and HAND PAINTED the darn thing! He did an amazing job! I couldn't have been happier!
All in all, we really did have fun with this one. It was time-consuming- that seems to be a pattern with costumes at our house but well worth it!
If you've read through this whole thing, wow, props to you! If you just scrolled through the pictures, you now know Craig has a hidden talent! Either way, I hope you enjoyed our craziness, or maybe you just feel more 'normal' in your love for Halloween! Now, go make your own costumes! I want to see your creations! The Halloween countdown begins, 8 days left!
-Mikenna