We're still in the throes of a freak snow event down here. Schools, and the city itself, are on day four of a shut down. I lived here during the blizzard of 1993 and don't remember the roads being out of commission this long at all. However, unlike in 1993, we had a lot of warning this was coming. But since snow is very uncommon in Atlanta I do not buy real winter gloves for my children. It's just a waste of money. My 10yo son only saw his first snowfall three years ago. The inexpensive $1 knit gloves at Target have served us well. Until this week. On Sunday, the day before the predicted white stuff would fall, I tried to find real snow gloves for my youngest children. I had no luck. These gloves are just not easy to find in Atlanta...especially past Christmas; we have swimsuits out in many stores, long johns, hats and scarves are already on clearance shelves. I was excited about the largest snowfall in years for my kids and wanted to have something to keep their hands dry so they could sled and play for hours. I was not to be deterred.
And then I found the answer...
Gardening gloves! These gloves were only $1 and came in perfect kid sizes. They're simple gardening gloves with a latex coating. I'm sure many a southern momma may already have some of these in their garage for all their fellow dirt loving children.
The gloves weren't enough alone so we squeezed those cheapy knit gloves over them. This proved to be the tricky part. For our daughter she wore fleece mittens over hers, much easier to get on.
They worked like a dream! The kids were out for hours at at time; sledding, digging, throwing snowballs and never complained about cold wet hands.
My daughter spent most of her time with her hands deep in the snow. Loving every moment.
On Monday night my middle son came in from the last round of sledding before bed and was unaware of what had happened to his gloves. They worked so well keeping his hands dry he giggled when I pointed out he had worn a hole through his outer gloves "steering" his sled.
The knit gloves were a loss but the inner gloves were still perfect for the next day and the next. Another tip you can notice in the previous photo is to seal up the wrists, my husband wrapped plastic wrap around his arms where the coat and gloves met then wrapped over that with duct tape. He was sealed up tight but no sticky residue on the coat or gloves. The man's a genius!
Now how do I repurpose these sleds that we'll never need again?