Ned's Birthday

He has learned that his favorite is always cinnamon rolls 

Some of our favorite things about 11-year-old Ned

• Ned is such a great leader to his younger two brothers.  He is compassionate, conscientious, and hard-working.  The three of them go to school together so they get to spend time together in the morning before school, on their way to school, and then often after school.  He just missed the deadline to enter Young Men's this year by 22 days so he's often with them on Wednesday nights while Gwen, Lincoln, and I are at the activities. He's often willing to ride his bike up with one of them if they want to go play with friends in another part of the neighborhood.  We rely heavily on him!
• Ned is strong!  He still does his daily push-ups, but also has made it a little bit of a goal to ride his bike to school every single day this year.  So far, he has done it- and the weather is not always favorable!  He has an electric bike, but he rarely takes it to school because he wants the exercise! He's also super fast and will often let us go ahead, maybe just so he has a chance to ride hard to catch up to us.  
• Ned is hard-working and smart.  Another goal he set was to obtain 95% or higher on all of his grades.  He asked us if we would reward him by taking him out to Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers if he could do it and he did!  He's on track to do it again.  
• As I've alluded to in the previous bullet points, Ned is great at setting and achieving goals.  Lincoln bought himself an electric bike and after Ned saw Lincoln riding around on it, he decided he wanted one as well.  Back in November, he set a goal to earn money for it.  He went out and sold golf balls and within 3 weeks, he had the money he needed ($300+) to purchase it by himself.  He is always amazing me!
• We love our conscientious and impressive Ned!