Did your parents ever pull you out of school when you were little just for a special day? Not a sick day or kids playing hooky but something special?

When my husband was in elementary school, he would look forward to the one day every holiday season when his mom pulled him out of school to decorate Christmas cookies. He tells me about it every year and how as a child he loved it and truly felt it was a huge bonus to not have to go to school for the day; he thought it was a pretty cool thing that he got to stay home from school to do something fun. He has such fond memories of this tradition that he thought it would be a great idea to start a tradition similar to this with our own children.

Being that my husband is a big fan of the Fall season, he thought we would start an annual cider mill family day. The day is filled with cider, donuts, haunted houses, hayrides, animal farms, corn mazes and more. We started the tradition recently with our 8 and 10 year olds. But, we have  seen how difficult it can be to make this wonderful cider mill day happen every year. Sure you can go to a cider mill any day in the fall but you have the whole place to yourself if you go on a weekday (school day) and don't have to battle the crowds.

Here's how this year's planning played out...

My husband researched the weather to find the perfect day. Once we picked the day, we decided not to tell the kids until the evening before because we didn't want to disappoint them if something came up and we needed to cancel. Little did we know we'd be the ones who would be disappointed. When we finally mentioned the plan to the kids, my daughter literally broke down into tears... not because she was so happy to have a day off from school to go to the cider mill, but because she didn't want to miss school on "Buddy Day." She felt so strongly about it, we decided to postpone. It was a difficult choice because the weather was ideal.

Plan B began. We found another highly sought after sunny fall day. After mentioning the plan for this go around to the kids, my son put the "kabash" on the plan stating that tomorrow is fitness testing day in gym class. In my son's defense, he has been doing some mini-training sessions at home to reach some goals at gym class so he really did not want to miss out on fitness test day.

Plan C's turn. Can't go on this day... the kids have choir in the morning and don't want to miss it.

Plan D gets to try. Day four of some more beautiful fall weather approaches. It falls on a Friday - a perfect way to end the week. We try once more to let the kids know we've picked a cider mill day. Again, my daughter begins to cry - Friday is the Publisher's Party and presentations day. She was so excited to celebrate her written piece and did not want to miss it. Once more, we cancel cider mill day.

Plan E takes a shot. Some ok weather awaits us on a Monday. Unfortunately, the kids will be on a field trip for Spirit Council. Not going to work.

Plan F's last ditch attempt was thwarted by the untimely weather of Hurricane Sandy. This date was the only one that worked but somehow enjoying pre-Halloween fun in a driving rainstorm and 40mph winds just took the starch out of us all. We're definitely going to have to make our "Cider Mill Day" sometime in early September next year.

The problem here (if you want to call it that) is that schools today incorporate plenty of fun and active options. Hats off to the teachers for keeping the kids so happy; so happy in fact that they would be sad to miss school - even for cider and donuts!

What sort of days would your mom or dad let you take a sick day from school for?