Whose fault is it?

[Annie]

At the beginning of the summer we bought all of our kids (including the two boys) "crocs"--not the brand-name ones, but $5.00 imitation ones that we got at Wal-Mart. They lasted the kids all summer--what a deal! We paid a total of $25 for all of the kids' play shoes for the summer. (I did also get the girls flip flops for $1 a pair at a thrift store.) Where we live, we go barefoot a lot, but there are snakes to watch out for. Crocs were the perfect shoes for the kids: waterproof, go-anywhere, OK to beat up, etc. I see a lot of guys wearing them around here, too. I'll be the first to admit I'm not on the cutting edge of fashion, so our purchases were definitely motivated by practicality and financial savings, not trendiness.