The Scam

Finally it's time. We've been saving and waiting for what seems like a lifetime, and I guess it has been the span of the girls' lifetime. This is the week we're going to visit The Mouse . . . at his California home. The days leading up to the trip will be filled with what you'd expect, laundry, errands, packing, and more laundry.

Uncle Bubba and my parents are all going, too, so it'll be a family affair. Grampy is fascinated with all things having to do with The Mouse. I think I was about 6 the first time we visited The Mouse's Florida home. This will be Honey and the girls' first time meeting The Mouse and his friends.

I think all those visits with The Mouse have gone to Grampy's head. He seems to think he knows the ways of The Mouse so well that he's talked us all in to running a little scam.

Remember "The Headless Babydoll of 2007"? Grampy can't bear to see his two little granddaughters cry. We have a certain youngest twin that has an adventurous streak waiting to explode as soon as she hits the gates of The Mouse Estate. She wants to ride every single ride, no matter how scary or fast. I have a feeling she'll just roll her eyes at "It's a Small World" as she runs past it headed for "Space Mountain".

The concern all along has been that she won't be tall enough to ride the stuff that really makes her eyes sparkle. So we've waited as long as possible to give her time to grow as tall as possible. And Saturday we measured both girls. The magic number is 42" . Diva Twin measured about 44" and, always the shorter twin, Adventure Girl measured about 43". And I knew we would all sleep better that night.

But it wasn't good enough for Grampy. What if we measured wrong? What if their measuring sticks were different than ours? What if, by some crazy turn of events, Adventure Girl was denied the right to ride a fast, scary ride? And she cried? It would totally ruin Grampy's trip. So the scam was born.

The idea of always measuring the taller Diva Twin first and then quickly ushering the shorter Adventure Girl past, falling back on the old adage that "they're twins, so they are just alike" was rejected. It was just too risky, especially since there were no guarantees that we were getting Diva Twin to agree to ride the fast, scary rides.

Grampy gave me strict instructions to go to the nearest store and purchase a pair of tennis shoes for each girl with the thickest soles we could find. To boost their height, thereby tricking the cast members at The Mouse Estate into thinking that they were in fact taller than they actually are. And for some sick, unknown reason, I agreed and bought the shoes. (I also found a pair for me and purchased them as well.)

So now we have two girls that measure 46" and 45". Surely they will not be denied the right to ride most of the fast, scary rides. They are a full 10" too short to ride the biggest rides, but I just didn't think the scam would work with 10" soles. The key to any good scam is subtle.