DIY Family Costumes: Carl and His House

I loved making our Halloween costumes this year. Once we decided we wanted our family to do an "Up" theme, the list making, pinteresting, and creating began.

I knew from the start that I wanted to be Kevin and that Giuliana should be Russell. And a darn cute Russell she was, at that. It only made sense for Brian to be Carl. I already shared how I did my Kevin Costume and my G's Russell Costume. Now it's time for Carl and his house to take the spotlight.

Anyway, Carl is the epitome of a curmudgeon. So Brian was perfect. =D 

In all seriousness, Brian was a great sport about it- it was over 100 degrees the day we dressed up for Mickey's Halloween Party, and Brian fully committed to the costume by wearing slacks, a long sleeved shirt, and fake glasses that kept fogging up on him. But he sure looked good!

I found fake glasses cheap on Amazon. I had already made the Ellie Badge for G's birthday party (more on that another day). We borrowed suspenders from my brother, but I bought bow tie. Now we can be fancy. The rest of it is pretty much clothing most people would have around the house... or at least, their dads might!

One thing I did get was white hair spray form the party store. It was a bit unnecessary, but it added to the effect.

I would only recommend it if you have time and/or access to a shower before bed though. Brian said it felt weird by the end of the night and it was difficult to get out. Sweating from the heat of the day probably didn't help much either. I think when he dresses up again on the actual day of Halloween, he's going to skip it.

So one thing Carl does throughout the entire movie is pull his house around. Well, Brian got to push his!

Making Hudson's costume was hands down my favorite part of this whole thing. Once we had settled on Up, I knew I wanted to incorporate the stroller since Hudson would only be about 3 months old. It was easy to find pictures and ideas for the rest of the costumes, but I couldn't seem to find anyone that built a house around a stroller. Using the basic idea from this tutorial, my dad and I made it happen.

Step 1- We made a prototype. We knew this wasn't the final product, so it made it a little easier to experiment. With some moving boxes from Lowes, we put together a basic house structure.

Step 2- Since we would need to transport it from our house to Disneyland (about an hour away without traffic), the house would have to removable from the stroller so everything could fold down and fit safely in the car. We figured out that we wanted to attach it to the stroller by hanging the back from the handles, while the front would rest on the front of the stroller. We attached it with some floral wire I got at Dollar Tree.

Step 3- We had to make sure it was baby-approved. It was. We made sure to make the opening in the front big enough to get Hudson in and out easily. The back side of the roof flipped up too for easy access to give him a binky. It's not pictures, but we also cut windows on the side for added effect and air movement.

Step 4- We added some details to the front to make it look as much like the "Up" house as possible. Of course, the dimensions couldn't be spot on- we had to be able to see over the top of it, push it through crowds, fit it in the car, and ya know, fit a baby inside of it- but we could add the little things to make it recognizable- the bay window in front, the eaves on the roof, the chimney....

Step 5- Paint! We spray painted the house white as like a primer. Then I went to town painting the house all of the fun colors the movie used.

Step 6- I added some more details. I found a little fence from Hobby Lobby that I used around the front yard. I painted some used brick detail on the chimney. I painted on windows and trim. And my favorite thing of all...

I recreated the mailbox out of construction paper and leftover cardboard. <3 p="">

After we arrived to our hotel and put the kids down for their nap, Brian left to go get some balloons and we had our finished product! 

The boys were a hit! A lot of people stopped us and wanted to take pictures. We got a lot of compliments. But the best part was we were able to make a lot of fun family memories.

If you're interested, you can see our DIY Monsters, Inc costumes from last year by clicking here!