dressing for disneyland: mickey and minnie mouse

I am a total dork when it comes to Disneyland. I am proud to impart that dorkiness onto my kids. Lucky for me, it isn’t much of a stretch.

The last time that we went to Disneyland with the older kids, they were 10, 8, 6, 6, and 5.

It’s been too long. The younger kids went with us a little over a year ago, but both were sick at the time (as was their dad), so we didn’t really go all out.

This time around, we’ve had quite a bit of time to plan. We will be headed to the Magic Kingdom on Sunday afternoon and we will be ready.

About six weeks ago, Théa found Minnie Mouse shoes at Target that she had to have. Seriously. She was sitting on the floor of Target trying on every pair in order to find her size. Meanwhile, I was helping Gus find shoes for a wedding in May. I know that I shouldn’t indulge these things, but sometimes you just have to go with it. I had already bought her an adorable striped skirt that she said she loved when I showed it to her, but then insisted that she would never wear because it was a skirt. These shoes were my chance to get her to wear the skirt. Her Minnie Mouse costume was born.

Not to be outdone by his sister, Gus decided that he wanted to dress like Mickey Mouse. Easy as pie. Red shorts, black shirt, done. But Gus wanted buttons too. And yellow shoes. It was like Halloween in February. It is a good thing that these kids have a dork of a mom because I went with it. All in? Gus’s costume cost me less than $20 and he’ll wear the pieces again. Théa has worn those Minnie Mouse shoes so many times that I was worried she would need a new pair for Disneyland. Money well spent.

Sources: {1} Old Navy T-shirt, {2} Old Navy Shorts, {3} Converse Shoes, {4} Old Navy T-shirt, {5} GapKids Skirt, {6} Old Navy Shoes 

Then something hilarious happened. Our 15 year-old daughter decided that she wanted to dress up too. Abby and Théa conspired on their outfits. They decided on Minnie Mouse and Belle. Abby borrowed my Minnie Mouse skirt (yes, I have one and yes, it was an excellent costume for Halloween last fall). We picked up a black t-shirt and some yellow tennis shoes to complete the look. Total cost of Minnie Mouse outfit? About $35 plus the time it took to sew felt circles on a plain red skirt. Well worth the effort.

Sources: Ear Headband, Black T-shirt, Red Skirt, and Yellow Shoes

I’ll show you next week how we put together both girls’ Belle dresses (which were a bit more involved). We also made Théa an Anna costume. Here’s a hint: if you start with a basic dress from Old Navy or Target, you can embellish from there. This makes the costumes much more affordable and comfortable for the girls. Have a great weekend!