HOW WE (almost) FAILED WACKY TACKY DAY

They were so excited last night.

They didn't even want us to lay out their clothes before bed because they wanted to be able to dream up something c-r-a-z-y for today.

It's the end of Spirit Week at school, you see, and today is the grand finalé: WACKY TACKY DAY. The possibilities were endless, right? Uh, yeah, shoulda been. Coulda been. But not for our monsters.

Try as they might, they just COULD NOT mismatch this morning. Everytime they came out with what they thought was the perfect clashing combo, I would say, "Wow, that's a cute one. You should wear that next week." And they would stomp off to try again.

He came out in his khakis, then in blue jeans, and even in a pair of camo shorts, and I'd just shake my head, "Not wacky enough, Bubba. Try again."

Huff. Puff. Stompstompstomp!

At one point, she even came into my room giggling at her own zany "wackiness" as she presented to me a plain white ankle sock AND the same exact sock BUT it had a pink and blue diamond on the top.

Wooooo! That one just about blew me away!! Not. (Bless her little fashionista heart.)

Seriously, it was everything I could do to contain myself. They just couldn't -- COULD NOT -- throw something together that just didn't work. And yes, I may have been beaming, but just a little. ;)

Finally, realizing that this was completely our fault, that we were asking them to go against everything we've ever taught them about colors and patterns and style and pizzaz, I got down on my hands and knees in front of their dressers, rifled through their drawers and dress-up boxes, and started giving them a mini-lesson in tackiness, including how to accessorize inappropriately -- "It's pretend dress-up," I would say. "You're TRYING to look silly and ridiculous and over-the-top," I would insist as they gave each other sideways glances and looked at me like I'd lost my marbles.

"It's okay to just go with the craziest things you can possibly imagine," I said. But no one was buying it.

"You don't need to be shy or embarrassed or anything," I tried.

"This should be fun," [forcrissakes]. "Let's just do this, okay?"

And I think they kinda sorta got it (sorta, kinda, but not really), and they were over-the-moon thrilled to the gills excited to have finally come up with this WACKY TACKY combo.

And Mommy did a great job with their wacky do's. The cherry on top that sealed the deal for them.

"I am sooo wacky tacky," she was telling him on the way to school.

"Nuh-uh," he retorted. "I'M the wackiest AND tackiest!"

And no, I don't believe we will be apologizing for the fact that they still look pretty damn stylish, in spite of themselves. ;)

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