Try finding Disney Princess gloves this week in Orlando

Success! I finally found Disney Princess and Toy Story gloves at Target. (photo by Kristin Ford/Orlando Sentinel)

It’s been freezing in Orlando this week, and there is more to come, unfortunately. The long stretch of cold days made me start to worry about my son and daughter’s outerwear.

They both have thick, padded coats with hoods and gloves. One pair of gloves was always enough in the past because the days they were actually worn in sunny Florida were few and far between. But now I worried that a child would lose a glove or rip one on the playground and subsequently end up with numb fingers because more gloves were not available.

And so began our search for back-up gloves in the middle of a cold snap. Good luck, right? Most store shelves were wiped clean, we soon found out. My husband ran up to the nearest Target and returned home with a tiny pair of black gloves. Black for my daughter? If they were the only pair in town, we’d use them, but we were really on the hunt for a pair that featured the Disney Princesses.

I went to three more Target stores the next day plus Toys R Us and Children’s Place, stopping as I passed by on my way to other destinations. Finally, I found a pair of Toy Story gloves for my son and Snow White and Little Mermaid gloves for my daughter, and they even were on clearance.

I felt a small sense of accomplishment when I got home — until I saw the notice from my daughter’s preschool about Winter Wonderland day at the end of the month. It asked that the children wear gloves and scarves. Scarves???? Of course we do not own scarves! And while scarves are not mandatory, my daughter was really excited about wearing one.

So, I did what I should have done in the first place — looked on DisneyStore.com and found a matching set of Cinderella gloves, hat and scarf on sale and placed my order as quickly as I could type.