Listen my children and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

The title and the stanza above is from Longfellow's, Paul Revere's Ride and explains why Ellie had the day off of school. Today is Patriot's Day (aka Marathon Monday) in Boston. Today marks Paul Revere's ride and the start of the Revolutionary War.

This morning, Ellie and I actually went down to City Square Park in Charlestown to see the start of Paul's ride. The story goes, that Paul Revere came over to Charlestown and watched to see, "one if by land, two if by see" in the steeple of the Old North Church. He then took off from Charlestown to the suburbs...err...Lexington and Concord and we all know our history from there right?

It was a fun gathering of Charlestown kids hosted by the Charlestown Mother's Association who generiously provided snacks. Ellie even saw two friends from school and spent some time comparing juice boxes and talking about their excitement to see the "horsey".

Eventually, Paul Revere made his arrival. There was a reading of the full poem by some Charlestown youth. There was a short talk by Paul himself about where he was going. Then the National Park Service ranger talked about the horse a little bit. And then, Paul paraded the horse around so each child could get a close look and the "one brown horsey, big" (we've been working on our adjectives, can you tell?).