Today Was The Day...: Who Said Anything About Hookey?

BEST. DAY. EVER!!!!

According to some sources, hookey may be described as:

Truancy, any intentional unauthorized absence from compulsory schooling

That is a LOT of big words to refer to a much needed day off. One of my all-time favorite movies, that I can proudly say I know verbatim, is "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". A modest tale of one high schoolers adventures with his best buddy and his favorite girl, while they explore Chicago's culture, museums and food scene. Ok, they ditch school, they leave, they lie, they cheat, but they really don't go and do anything that any tourist wouldn't do while visiting the fair city of Chicago! Isn't that a bit of a "life experience"? Shouldn't we all have that kind of day?

Let me back up a second. When my first two kids were born, I spent a great deal of time with them. I took them to parks, to gym classes, Mommy and Me, etc, etc. Unfortunately, if you are #3 in the birth order in my house, you don't even know that there are places where just you and Mommy go to play. You get to hang out in the car seat while mommy runs from school to the store to home. I have felt a little bit of guilt about all this, and a few years ago I took her on a Mommy-Daughter-Day to Disneyland. She was barely 4 years old, but we had a great time.

Since then, all the kids are school now full-time, and it is much harder to find a day to do something like this. However, now we are in the midst of letting our Annual Passes from Disney expire. We bought everyone's passes at different times of the year and our little one was going to be first on the chopping block with her pass. That was enough for me to make plans to surprise her with one last Mommy-Daughter-Day at Disneyland.

When we woke up, I told her she was going to the dentist. I don't know how much she knew, but eventually the middle child spilled the beans for her. That was one excited little girl! I arranged to have my parents pick up the older kids and off we went.

No dentist for me! Let's go to Disneyland!!

Dreary weather didn't stop us!

We arrived on a rainy day that was just before Spring Breaks were starting, so it was not crowded! I had signed us up to a sneak preview for passholders of the new Fantasy Faire. I am so glad she was able to be a part of it before her passes expired! She got to meet the princesses, try all the new food and even see a special love show.

I made a point to make it a "yes" day for her. Any ride, any food, whatever...it was up to her and she loved being in charge. We made our way over to Disney's California Adventure and we hopped, skipped and jumped around Cars Land, A Bug's Life and whatever she could dream of. I even let her pick one special souvenir. She chose a beautiful scarf that featured The Little Mermaid. It is actually quite beautiful She wore it the rest of the day, to bed that night and wears it as much as she can. She told me that everytime she wears it, she thinks of our perfect day together.

That smile was all day long!

It was such a special one on one time for both of us. When we have more than one kid, it is really hard to try and find time to spend with just one of them. My little girl has a such a great and outgoing personality, and she really let it shine during our day. Without having to fight for attention, she relaxed and blossomed right in front of me.

So yeah...we played "hookey", but it was in exchange for a life experience that I wouldn't trade for the world.