Warm Stuff for Kids + Gear Giveaway

*Contest Closed!  Congratulations to Suzy! (lucky #7!)

Our struggle constantly when we are are outside is keeping the kids warm and making sure they are staying warm.  We invest in great gear for them because we know it will make everyone's day a whole lot better when we are all warm.

Around this past Christmas, I joined in some other bloggers for a holiday gift guide and did a post about some of the gear we really love and think does a good job for our boys.  I wanted to add just a couple more things:

Junior Polar Buff:
I have actually been a big fan of Buff Headwear for a long time now.  I have two of the original Buffs and I wear them nearly daily (for running, skiing, hiking, and bad hair days.)  I am wearing mine in most of the pictures in this post.

The polar buff (retailing for $24.99) is made up of basically a buff (which is a stretchy piece of tubular fabric) + a tubular piece of fleece.  You can fold them together, use them separately (fleece around the head and buff tied together over your hair for a hat), or even wear them inside out if you want.

J wears it as a neckwarmer, but Buff advertises a bunch of other uses:

Why We Love it:
- There is a ton of fabric so the coverage is great as a neck warmer.
- The fabric is stretchy so allows for a bunch of different sizes of kids.  I can almost wear it myself (almost, but not quite...)
- This is maybe too much information and a little gross, but when it is cold out and J's nose is running like crazy, the buff part of the neck warmer works great as a snot rag (while still keeping his neck warm and dry with the fleece part.)
- The buff part allows for a bunch of different designs, which kids love!

You can find Buff Headwear on Facebook and Twitter.

ONS-Mittens
This Canadian-based company certainly got something right when it means keeping kids dry and warm.  These gloves stay on J, certainly keep snow out completely (thanks to the fleece removable sleeves) and seem to keep his hands warmer than most of his other gloves he owns (except for when we layer some of his other with liners.)

Why We Love Them:
- The removable (by zipper) sleeves keep snow out completely (they literally go up to J's arm-pits)
- The sleeves ARE removable, so you can unzip them a bit to arrange thumbs, fingers, etc. before zipping them back up and securing the mittens with the wrist cinch strap.
- The fleece just makes them warmer in general.  It must be the heat that gets trapped in there??
- The mittens have a snot-wiper on them. :)

What We Aren't SUPER Crazy About:
- Quite honestly, they can be a pain to get on at times.  And you certainly HAVE to put them on before a coat.

Mitt-Ons Retail for $24.95 (Canadian)

Passing the Gear On to YOU

We say it all the time, but we really believe in great gear.  Buff, Inc. sent us an extra (girl) Junior Polar Buff.  We'd love to pass it on to someone who could really use it!  To enter to win it (pictured below) just comment on this post (sorry, open to US only)!  We'll pick a winner after February 2nd and notify the winner by email.

Buff, Inc. and ONS Gear both provided me samples of their products for free or for a reduced cost.  However, as always, the thoughts expressed here are completely and honestly my own.