thanks for your replies!

chatter...i am truely making a genuine attempt! i want the kids to look nice and cute (depending on thier age ;) )
and they are welcome to wear the appropriate clothes if i have them (no i dont usually send their best casual clothes because they either come back trashed or not at all...but this is different, AND i dont send them in 'junk' either).

i just really dont have the items i listed above.

Jen,
it WOULD hurt the kids if they were embarrassed with what they were wearing. i do my best to cloth them so thier happy in what they wear.
Unfortunately, my budget is so SO tight and managed that there genuinely isnt any $$ at all left right now.
if there was id pick up the clothes myself and then they'd have them anyhow.
but i just bought all thier summer clothes. and i had to go in the hole just to do that. :( believe me. it will be SO embarrassing to even bring this up to him. though he knows the $$ situation. ive asked him to help me meet thier needs at times, and he tells me that's what cs is for. so i stopped even asking. even the kids have mentioned things. and it doesnt really help.
i really hate the little games that parents play with kids in regards to this stuff so i really try to do the right thing (even if my stbx doesnt).

this is going to stink!
contact with him always, somehow, is not good.
either he'll mock me in someway, let me know how 'perfect' his life is, be mean, or (manipulatively) nice.

but... oh well.

im just going to have to talk to him i guess.

i HOPE this goes okay...