On Friday night, I found myself putting on makeup while squinting at a tiny Lego Minifigure for reference. The night before, I was designing a hoodie and yoga pants – while studying that same minifigure to guide my fingers.
There are far too few times in life that this occurs, but our family made the most of our big opportunity.
Because here’s the deal: We are a Lego Family. My husband has loved these bricks since he was a child, and even claims to have somewhat decided his career based on them (“My job is just like building Lego – except with 3-D computer models instead of by hand.”)
In addition, we design a trunk for our church’s Trunk and Treat every year, always themed around something quirky.
So the fact that The Lego Movie came out this year meant that this was his chance. His chance to enter into every childhood fantasy, and to show off his mad brick skills to the world.
First, our costumes, as compared to the movie characters:
Ali is the ever-positive Princess Unikitty, Noah is “The Special”, also known as Emmet. I am WyldStyle, later identified as Lucy, and Chris is the villain, Lord Business.
If you’ve seen the movie you understand why Chris had to be Lord Business.
Because he is Lord Business.
My Lord Business stayed up until 1am two nights in a row designing this for the back of his truck – out of his own Lego (and a few from the kid’s collection.)
I watched him meticulously design a diorama so complicated that no passing kid at Trunk and Treat would ever fully absorb it, but such trivialities don’t matter to Lord Business.
Luckily for you, though, I am here to explain it.
The concept is that there’s a stadium with screaming fans. The game being played is Chess.
Like football, Chess can be brutal, requiring medics and stretchers.
In the stands can be found all pertinent, themed, and slightly sketchy minifigures.
(Chris put me in charge of assembling the minifigs, and I might have enjoyed my job a bit too much.)
Some were important enough to get skyboxes, such as the stars of The Lego Movie and important Hobbits.
And others perhaps took their skyboxes with dark magic or by practicing the spells they were learning in school.
In front of the stadium are the tailgaters, and perhaps those that didn’t pay for an actual ticket into the stadium.
And of course at every good tailgate, you have a satellite dish and a Grillmaster.
(There are so many layers of Chris in this project. So. Many. Layers.)
He set it all up in his truck, along with exact replicas of the signage around the Lego sets in The Lego Movie.
“But babe, some people will see those signs and not get The Lego Movie reference and just think you’re being a turd.”
“That’s okay. Because I’m half serious about the signs, too. I don’t want all those kids trying to touch my Lego!”
“You’re SO Lord Business.”
“Yes. Yes I am.”
His bravery gave me strength: If he could risk the exposure of his Lego to thousands of juvenile passerby, then I could do my part, too.
(I had to add my pink and blue hair once I arrived to meet him, as the ones I ordered from Amazon didn’t come in, and I spent all day Friday at the doctor and had to send Chris to Sally Beauty Supply to buy my hair extensions. I knew he’d do it because he will do anything thing for [Lego] Love.)
Noah was Emmet all the way down to The Piece of Resistance, which Chris rubber-banded and binder-clipped to his back.
And Ali was a fantastic Princess Unikitty thanks to an amazing blog reader and master crochet artist, Stephanie, whom I texted less than two weeks in advance, and she miraculously created this masterpiece for me:
(I added the braided tail. Because that’s the extent of my construction capabilities.)
And then we got to work. Handing out candy to hundreds (thousands?) of kids,
and torturing our children with the sudden cold snap that came just in time for Halloween.
That night, as I tucked Noah into bed, I was asking him about all of his favorite parts of the event.
“What were your favorite costumes?”
Sleepily, he answered me, “I only liked yours, Mom.”
Endlessly loyal to Lucy: He’s the perfect Emmet.
The next morning, Noah woke up and squealed, “Daddy said we could play with all the Lego tomorrow and now it’s tomorrow. All of them!! ISN’T HE NICE?!?!?”
So maybe he’s not a total Lord Business after all.
Appendix:
– Clearly, we have a lot of minifigures, which are really the most fun part of Lego in my opinion. To create this giant collection, I bought Chris these minifigure sets three Christmases in a row. They have fantastic characters in them, and, in Lego standards, are inexpensive (well, two out of three are, anyway.)
– Thanks to the overcrowding of Frozen costumes this year, Lego Movie costumes were impossible to find (which made us the only Lego Movie characters that we saw all night, so at least we were unique.) Noah’s jacket, however, I found here, and I’m sure he’ll wear it every other day for the rest of the winter. Ali’s hat was custom crocheted for her by Stephanie at Spring Valley Special and quite reasonably priced, and I am positive it will be Ali’s go-to winter hat. Chris made his headpiece out of a couple of UPS boxes, a Lego Store container top, a couple of styrofoam cylinders, tea lights, and spray paint. If he wears it all winter, I’ll let you know. I created my outfit with a black hoodie and multicolored duct tape, and some pretty fabulous hot pink lipstick.
Awesome! I see this in my future once my kids are old enough to move beyond Duplos. (Ok technically the oldest could handle it since he no longer puts things in his mouth but I’d rather wait til the baby is older so I don’t have to worry about her finding things he forgot to clean up!)
I love your costumes. I think what I love the most is that you did it without making the Lego heads.
Thanks! I saw several during my research with the heads, and they just look huge and bulky and a little cheesy. We were a human representation of the characters, some more abstract than others (like Ali).
We are Lego lovers at our house so there are many levels to my love of this post. First, your didn’t pluralise the word Lego. I love the mixing of worlds with the minifig audience. We have a giant Lego table that is always in mid-battle. There are medieval knights next to Ironman, who is next to a vampire, who is next to a ghostly ninja. I also feel like the minifigs are the best part! I am also a bit of Lord Business, or is it Lady Business? Anyway, I have my own sets that are “off limits” but the vast majority are available for construction.
All of this to say, you guys are really cool!
That’s so awesome. Chris keeps his personal sets off-limits for a while, then eventually they get assimilated into the general collection. But not his childhood Lego – those will always be separate.
Did you have “Everything is Awesome” playing in the background? Love the setup!
Yes, actually! Chris bought the whole soundtrack so we didn’t have to listen to it on repeat, though.
You are such a fun blogger. I love to read your posts. You are so creative and have a great sense of humor. It’s just refreshing to hear from you. You mentioned you’d been to the doctor ‘s office all day. I hope you were able to get the help you need. I read your posts on your health issues and felt for you. What a difficult thing to deal with but what a good attitude you have. Thanks for blogging. P. S. Fun, creative costumes and excellent Lego display.
Thank you so much!! We’re beginning to heal, but Noah and I still have symptoms of our individual ailments this week (croup for him, poison sumac for me). Hoping to be 100% soon!
I totally thought your graffiti artist friend MOIST (is that his name? wait.. do i have it wrong? if i do i apologize..) would have done the artwork on your hoodie! Gotta call in the favors girl!!! Love the costumes! We just got our kids lego advent calendars- they don’t even know the fun they are in for… I’m more excited then them at this point!! :)
Ha! Yes, Moist should have totally designed my outfit, except for the fact that he’s not talked to me in a while. He goes through periods of time where he quits communicating…oh well. :-)
I love this so so much. Your family looks great! Our family is obsessed with all things Lego too, and my husband has really enjoyed breaking out his old Lego sets and our son, who is turning 6 at the end of the month, has only asked for Lego sets for his birthday.
PS – Hope everything went well at the doctor.
We’re getting better! Slowly. Too slowly. But we will be better one day. :-)
Wow – great job!! You guys (and your truck) look awesome!
I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to see something other than FROZEN costumes… even if I didn’t have a clue about the character I was creating a hat from)! You planned your costume all the way back to when you dyed your hair black, didn’t you? Thanks for the advertising! Ali made the hat look MUCH more adorable! :)
I did say that I had to be Lucy, not Ali, because my hair was black. Ali was quite thrilled to be Unikitty, though, so it all worked out. I hope you watch the movie soon for context! Thanks again!
So so great! I thought it was so funny that we are supposed to feel sorry for the kid in the Lego movie and T was really identifying with Lord Business. I told him Lord Business was the “bad guy” and he protested loudly. Haha :) SO funny. He and Chris should get together and create an awesome Lego town!
Chris felt Deep Shame when he got to the end and realized who Lord Business was. Apparently he has more of a heart than Tyson. ;-)
I have never managed much creativity with halloween. I love the trunk or treats because it puts so many wonderful ideas all in the same place so that I can enjoy them. I have a 3 month old, so for the third time (third 2-3 month old at halloween) I dressed up the baby in a dead baby seal costume I made 5 years ago and I went as a baby seal clubber. That’s as far as I’ve managed creatively.
Keep up the good work and thanks for all the pics!
WOW. That’s pretty…..WOW! Surely you get a few dirty looks. :-)