1st day of 2nd grade!!!!!

I do NOT like this one bit! My babies are in 2nd grade! 
Today was their first day of school and both were very excited to see their friends from last year again! Tyler has the teacher who was in charge of the play we did last year, Mr. Jim, his first male teacher! I have been told he sings most of his lessons and teaches through music. Could Ty possibly have a more perfect fit for a teacher????? 
And Grace has a lady who taught one of the little girls I babysat last year. I actually subbed for her and her classroom is amazingly organized and she is one of the nicest teachers I've ever met! My kids are super lucky once again this year to have the most amazing teachers! We are very excited to start the school year together! Yep, you heard right, I will be teaching again! I will actually be a long term substitute for a 1st grade teacher who is going on a 3 month maternity leave starting in early October! Ty, Grace, and I will all be in the same hallway together every day! I couldn't be more excited to be with them everyday at school! 

So, the first day of 2nd grade is very different here at TISA, for one thing, the kids are given their first exposure to learning a new language. They are able to choose from Russian, Spanish, or French and they go to language class 3x a week! Tyler will be learning Spanish and Grace will be learning Russian.

The other new thing this year is that 2nd graders are given their own "badges" to get in/out of school with. Everyone (including parents) must have a badge to get in/out of the school through turn styles monitored by security guards. Each badge has the child or adult's picture and name on it.

So today was an emotional on for me.... my babies are growing up and I am excited and proud of them, and yet I miss the babies they used to be as well.

Anyway, here are the few pics I have of today....

Here is Grace walking as far away from Mommy and Daddy as she can because she saw one of her friends who happen to be a boy....on the way into school.....btw this same little girl was holding my hand when we first got out of the car telling me she was nervous......and that hand got dropped as soon as she saw her friends.....and thus it begins.....

 Before getting in the car on the way to school for the 1st day of 2nd grade! I asked them nicely to pose together, at first Ty wouldn't take a picture....then Grace wouldn't let him put his arm around her.....I said "come on you two this is really important to mommy, please take a nice picture!" and so they put their arms around each other but Grace wouldn't smile:(

You can see Grace off in the distance still walking far away from us while Ty is awake an ready and happy to smile for the camera.....

Big kid badges.......:( Oh why can't they just freeze in time and stop growing?