Charlotte is TWELVE

Charlotte was looking forward to turning 12.  Huge.  At church, twelve is a big deal.  When you turn twelve you can leave the children's program (Primary) and go the to youth program (Young Women's).  Since Charlotte's birthday is December 27th, she was the last one left.  All her friends had moved on and left her with the younger kids.  She took it all in stride - the adult leaders all gave her a good natured teasing about STILL being here with us in Primary and she was usually the one we let do the special leadership type things - like hold the babies and narrate the Sacrament program.  When her birthday came, she was so excited to go.  When a girl turns twelve, she is "captured", in our Ward.  This means that she attends her regular meetings and the young women - all 17 of them - came in to the opening exercises and announced - We are here for Charlotte, but, we will sing for you all.  Charlotte then gets to choose her favorite Primary song - Charlie chose A Child's Prayer - and she joins the young women as they sing it.  Then they all file out of the room and Charlotte hugs her teacher and says goodbye.  I got a hug too.  It was sweet.  The twelve year old girls really look forward to it.

I asked Charlotte to share twelve things for her birthday:

1.  I love swimming.  Love it!
2.  My favorite color is teal.
3.  I love playing minecraft.
4.  I love to sing.
5.  I like to wear bows in my hair.
6.  I hate math class.
7.  When I grow up I want to be a photographer and a swim coach.
8.  My favorite food is watermelon.
9.  I love to hold babies and I love to babysit.
10.  I know a lot of twins.  It's weird how many sets of twins I know.
11.  I am the best and getting up in the morning and getting ready.
12.  My favorite season is winter.

Charlotte is the queen of selfies.  I once deleted 1,057 pictures off of my phone.  They were ALL of Charlotte.  True story.  Charlotte is sweet.  She is cheerful and polite.  She has a sassy streak when she wants to let it loose.  Charlotte is forgiving and does not know a stranger.  She is truly comfortable in her own skin and shares her smile as she goes.  Happy twelfth birthday, Charlotte!