Story Behind the Pictures: Alphabet Soup

This series of photographs was born from a mother's desperation (mine, to be more specific). During one of the rainiest weeks of the summer, my boys decided to the best activity they could conjure up would be to fight with each other.
All the time.
Every day.
Constantly.
After 34 trips to the naughty step (each) in a single morning, and loosing my voice from yelling, I realized I had two choices: sell the children on Craig's List or send them on a scavenger hunt of some sort. Inspiration came in the form of pain as I stepped on yet another little metal toy lurking in the shadows of the carpet (it was the airplane).

The alphabet scavenger hunt was on! As the boys brought me their treasures, all the prints that you see in the collection gathered in my mind. Danny insisted we use his beloved "Lamby" for the "L"...I had to gently explain that while a threadbare, flattened, missing-an-eye stuffed lamb might be the love of his life, it wouldn't really appeal to folks to didn't know Lamby personally. When I was uploading the images later that night, I found a photograph of Lamby. He must have snuck in to my studio and used the camera and tripod while I was making lunch.

Danny and Lucas are proud that the airplane their grandfather gave them, the baseball from their cousin, the car they bought on vacation, and the vintage wood dog from their great-grandmother's house are just a small part of this collection of prints/children's book. I'm just happy I didn't have to sell my children on Craig's List.