Girls who wear dresses to play in the mud

The blog title really tells it all; I'm not sure how much I really need to expand on it. Seriously, Nellie and Annie won't wear anything but dresses (sometimes with skirts over or under them for good measure), and if there is water and/or mud anywhere in a one-mile radius, they will find it. Case(s) in point:

• On Thursday, I needed to fill up a couple hours before we met Kevin for dinner so I took the kids to a park in Grand Ledge on the river. They played like normal kids on the swings and climbers for a few minutes, then wanted to go down and throw things in the river (grass, flowers, sticks, etc.) Fine. Then they wanted to get closer, so we walked down the trail until we found a good spot. Then they wanted to know if they could pleeeeeease take off their shoes walk in the sand, which is this really this awful mucky mud stuff that might not even be mud at all. But it seemed pretty safe, and DJ was getting hungry/fussy so I was a little desperate for entertainment at that point. In they went. WHEN WILL I EVER LEARN??? For the last two years, any time they were near water they were IN THE WATER. Every time I thought, eh, we won't need swimsuits, they can just play on the shore/stick their feet in/throw stones, they ended up either swimming in their underwear or wearing soaking wet clothes. This time was no exception. They started making mud pies and tossing them in the river and got so dirty that I had to use up all the baby wipes to get the worst of it off, get them in the van, strip their dresses off, and take them home to take a bath and start the laundry before we could go to dinner.
• On Friday, we had to kill some time after preschool before a graduation party for a friend. So we played on the playground at LCS, where a huge pile of mulch had been delivered. Of course, that's all the girls wanted to play in, digging holes and flinging mulch everywhere (in their dresses.) AND there were big mud puddles from storms the night before. Try as I might to keep them away, the mud found them. Annie was sloshing around in her wet shoes, and both girls needed new shoes anyway, so we went to Payless and got Nellie new tennis shoes and Annie new sandals. The party was at my friends house on the river, and the rain left giant puddles in their yard where the girls did extensive jumping until I saw them. So their brand new sopping wet and muddy shoes went into a plastic bag and into the washing machine the day they came home from the store. 

I've gone over this in my head several times, wondering if I just need to put my foot down and refuse to let them near water and/or mud, or insist they wear mud-appropriate clothing. I won't go into all my pontifications. Let me just say that in the end, I've resigned myself to the fact that I will spend the summer removing stains, keeping extra clothes in the car, searching resale shops for cheap clothes, and trying to save one dress each for church and weddings. Because in the end, these girls love all things pink, purple, frilly, princessy, sparkly, and fancy; and they love mud. I guess I wouldn't have it any other way.