"Oooo, these ones are pretty…" Kristina pointed to a large basket of Begonias as she walked through the green house behind her sisters

I've been sitting on this one for a little while now, just waiting for this week to put it up. Happy Mothers Day to all you Mother's, Soon to Be Mothers, and everyone else. Enjoy. Do I need to put my disclaimer?

Part 4

"Oooo, these ones are pretty…" Kristina pointed to a large basket of Begonias as she walked through the green house behind her sisters. Sam turned around briefly to look at the flowers that Kristina now smelled.

"Those are pretty, but let's keep looking, we have a lot to look at and you might find something that you like better." She was babysitting again and Sam took the opportunity to take her sisters flower shopping. Alexis had been working a lot of hours since Michael's shooting and didn't have time to do the annual spring planting. She thought it would be a nice surprise for her mother to come home and see all the flowers planted in the front yard and around the house.

Molly was just a couple of steps ahead of Sam. She was eyeing a hanging basket filled with purple petunias. Molly had reached down to one of the flowers and pulled it up to her nose to smell the sweet fragrance. Although Sam was watching her out of the corner of her eye, Molly got Sam's full attention when she let out an ear piercing scream.

"Molly, what happened?" Sam questioned the little girl hoping that she didn't get stung by a bee that may have been deep inside the flower.

Molly was now crying hysterical tears, sucking in enough air to squeal "it tried to eat me." Sam pulled her little sister into a hug trying to assure her that she only put her nose inside the flower and sucked the flower to her nose. The flower was not trying to eat the little girl.

"Okay…" Molly sniffed, "But I don't like that flower anymore."

"Oh, it's okay, sweetie. Come on, let's go outside and look at the flowers out there." Sam picked up Molly and rubbed her back trying to soothe the little girl. Molly put her head down on Sam's shoulder and went limp allowing her big sister to carry her outside. "Come on, Kristina, let's go outside and look." Sam hollered to the other little girl who picked up a basket of pink begonias.

"You really like those ones?" Sam asked smiling down at Kristina. She nodded and placed the flowers red wagon that was supplied by the green house for the customer's floral selections.

Once outside, Sam put Molly down to walk on her own. She immediately spotted a table full of multicolored Snapdragons. Kristina went after the pansies.

"Oh, those are my favorite, Molly." Molly smiled as she tried to pick up a whole flat of the flowers.

Sam immediately ran to help her, "Do you know why these are my favorite?" Molly shook her head.

"Because if you squeeze them right here," Sam demonstrated by holding a flower on each side between her thumb and index finger and squeezed gently, "they open their mouth." Molly let out a giggle when she saw the flower pop open.

"Can I try?" Molly asked as she reached up to squeeze a flower.

"Sure…here let me help," Sam picked Molly up and guided her little fingers to the side of a flower.

"I did it," Molly smiled up to her big sister when the flower popped open to Molly's touch.

"Sam, can we get some of these?" Kristina hollered across the tables. "I think they are real pretty."

"If you like them, sure…pick up a whole flat." Kristina turned back to the blue, yellow, and white pansies and screwed up her face. She looked at the flowers a minute befuddled.

"What's a flat?" She finally turned and asked.

Sam smiled and pulled the wagon over toward Kristina, "I'm sorry, honey…a flat is one of these long plastic trays that all the flowers in.

"Oh," Kristina replied as she pulled a flat of the pansies off of the table and placed them in the wagon.

"Hmm," Sam sighed.

"What's wrong?" Kristina saw the look on Sam's face.

"I don't think that our wagon is big enough. Do you think that you can pull one too?" Sam asked Kristina.

"Sure, I'll go get another one." Kristina ran off in the directions of the wagons and soon came back pulling two wagons behind her. "Molly needs one too."

An hour later, each girl was pulling a red radio flyer wagon full of flowers through the green house. Kristina's was full of pansies and begonias. Molly and fallen in love with the Snapdragons and had a plant of every color. Sam topped the selection off with a couple of flats of petunias, red, white, and blue (well purple, actually) to plant around the flag pole.

"Sammi, no…" Molly screamed from behind.

Sam stopped and quickly turned around to see a terrified look on Molly's face. "Molly, what's wrong?"

"You can't go that way, 'member?"

"What?!" Sam smiled when she remember the hanging basket that Molly found when they first arrived. "I'm sorry, Mol, I forgot. We'll go the other way." Sam turned the girls around and went the long way around the greenhouse to get to the counter.

The three girls spent the rest of the afternoon planting all of the flowers that they had just purchased. All of the petunias went around the flag pole. The deck was lined with pansies. Sam and Kristina were careful to plant them in a place that would not be direct sunlight. Along the deck they would get the morning sunshine and the afternoon shade; perfect for the delicate flower.

Just before they had left the greenhouse, Sam had called Lucky and asked him to bring the truck to the lake house full of woodchips and mulch. While the girls planted the flowers, Lucky pile the mulch at the base of each tree making sure that there was enough mulch to make a perfect rounded slope flower bed. Molly insisted that they plant the Snapdragons at the base of the trees.

Once the flowers were all planted the group pulled the Kristina's wagon down to the lakeshore to the find the perfect smooth stones to add as decorations among the mulch and flowers.

"So what's with all of the gardening, today?" Lucky asked as she sat down on the shore next to Sam. She was sitting there watching the two younger girls pick up stones and toss them into the wagon.

She shrugged her shoulders. "It was a beautiful day, and I thought it would be a great outdoor activity for the girls. I always loved to plant flowers when I was their age. Danny and I would have flowers planted everywhere."

Lucky's smile faded when he saw the sadness that was welling up in her eyes. "Sounds like you and Danny had fun."

"Yeah, but my mother…no correction, my adoptive mother never appreciated our efforts. 'I don't know why you two wasted your time' she would say. 'You're father's just going to cut them down with the lawnmower.'" Sam hung her head and kicked a couple of stones before looking back up to her sisters.

"Wow...Sam look at this one!" Kristina called as she tried to pick up a rock as big as her.

"Yeah…do you need help with that?" Kristina let the rock drop from her little hands when she saw Lucky jump up to help her. He picked the rock and tossed it into the wagon. "I think we take this load back to the front yard," he said as picked up the handle to the wagon.

The girls quietly followed. Kristina was anxious to unload the rocks from the wagon but Molly seemed to be more interested in her pockets. Lucky helped Kristina decided where to put all of the rocks and stones but Sam stood back and watched Molly. First, Molly climbed underneath of the stairs leading up to the deck. She sat in the dirt and arranged the contents of her pockets every once in a while pushing something into the chest pocket of her overalls. Then she crawled out of the small space, pushed herself off the ground and toddled to the side of the house where the garden hose was neatly hanging.

Finally, she pulled the hose along with her as she moved toward the tree that Lucky and Kristina were working under. She pulled one acorn out of her overalls pocket and placed it onto the ground. She steadily aimed the hose nozzle at the acorn and pulled the handle.

The little girl was not expecting the pressure from the water to be as strong as it was and it pushed her backwards onto her little behind. She was determined not to let go of the hose as she tried to get up but she ended up spraying down Lucky and Kristina.

"Molly, quit spraying me," Kristina yelled. She tried to get out of the stream of water but it seemed that no matter which direction she ran the water inadvertently followed her. "Sam…help."

Sam stopped laughing long enough to run to the side of the house and turn off the water. But everything was soaked including Lucky. "I hope you have some extra clothes in the truck," she tried to hold back a laugh. "Because all I have to give you is one of my mom's dresses."

Lucky eyed Sam then turned to Kristina. "Well, Krissy, I see something seriously wrong here." Kristina followed his gaze to the hose and she got the hint. Quickly she went for the hose and Lucky ran to the valve on the side of the house.

"Don't you dare…" Sam threatened pointing to Lucky.

"I don't know, what do you think, Kristina?"

"Kristina, no...I didn't do it. Come on, you love your sister, don't you?" Sam pleaded with the seven year old.

Lucky stood behind Sam shaking his head. He turned the valve as soon as Sam turned her attention to Kristina. Kristina pulled the nozzle and began to hose down her big sister. Molly started to giggle, she ran toward Sam trying to push her out of the way and getting soaked also. The wet grass quickly turned to mud with all of the extra water. Sam slipped taking Molly down with her. Lucky turned off the water laughing at the Sam and Molly now covered with mud.

"Oh, you are DEAD Spencer…But first YOU have to clean up Kristina before my mother gets home." Sam picked up muddy Molly and carried her into the house, locking the door behind her.

Kristina chewed on her lip then turned to Lucky. "Got any clothes for me at your house…" Lucky shook his head. "Cause she just locked us out."

Three hours later, Lucky and Kristina returned back to the Lakehouse. Sam had unlocked the door in anticipation of their arrival. Lucky ended up taking Kristina to the department store soaked and muddy. He bought her a new outfit, socks, shoes and underwear before taking her back to his place for a bath.

"Sam, we're back…" Kristina yelled as she entered the house.

"Shhh…" Sam put her finger up to her lips. She had just gotten Molly to sleep after a warm bath. "Well you look a lot cleaner. Where do you get those clothes?"

"Lucky had to take me shopping…"

"Hmmph…well good for him." She gave Lucky a wicked Smile. "Alright munchkin, we have a busy day tomorrow, time for bed."

"Is mommy home yet?"

"Nope, she called a little while ago; she's going to be another couple of hours so she told me to put you and Molly girl to bed." Kristina accepted Sam's answer and ran to her room to get ready for bed.

"Well Detective, I will see you later. I have stories to read." Lucky pulled Sam close to him and leaned in for kiss. As they kissed, Sam slowly pushed him toward the door. "Goodbye, detective…" Lucky smiled and left without a word.

The next morning, Sam had set her alarm to get her up early. She padded to her mother's room quietly peaking in to make sure that her mother had, in fact, made it home. Next she went to Kristina and Molly's respective rooms.

"Get up, sleepy head." She said gently shaking Kristina. Kristina rolled over and opened one eye.

"Where are we going?"

"To the kitchen, remember?"

"Oh, yeah..." Kristina jumped out of bed full of excitement.

The three girls hurried to the kitchen. Sam already had everything laid out. She made three stations last night after she put the girls to bed. The pancake station, the toast, station, and the Jelly station; together they whipped up the pancake batter. Sam put in all of the ingredients while Molly and Kristina took turns stirring.

She moved two chairs to the counter so that the younger girls could reach their station. Kristina was in charge of toast and Molly was in charge of putting Jelly on everything, while Sam made the pancakes. They put together a big stack of pancakes covered in maple syrup. Kristina pulled two pieces of toast from the toaster and handed them to Molly. Molly plopped two great big globs of jelly on to each piece then put them together. Kristina poured the orange juice and Sam put everything on the tray.

Finally, Sam handed each girl a present and put one more under the plate on the tray.

"Okay, ready girls."

"Yep," they both nodded in unison.

"Okay, let's go. But be quiet." The two little ones tried but they giggle all the way down the hall. When they reached the door Kristina turned the knob and Molly pushed it open. Just as they rehearsed, they all step about 4 steps into the room before they all yelled, "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY."

Alexis sat up with a jerk, confused to what was going on. She didn't have time to comprehend the situation because Molly and Kristina were on a full charge headed for her bed. Sam stood back and let the little girls smoother their mother in kisses. "Okay, now girls," she finally said. "Let me give this tray to Mom before I drop it." Alexis sat up to accept the tray.

"Oh, my, this looks delicious; did you three do this for me?"

"Yep," Molly answered. "Sammi made the cakes, Krissy made the toast, and I smeared on the Jelly."

"Well, you all did a fantastic job. And what a surprise…"

"Oh we're not done yet." Sam said as she sat on the bed next to her little sisters. "Eat up."

As Alexis ate her breakfast, she opened each gift one at a time. Youngest to oldest she announced. Molly's present was a vase that had foam flowers in the shape of her little hands, with green pipe cleaners for stems. She had made it at daycare. She had brought it home on one of the days that Sam picked her up so Sam was able to tuck it away before Alexis saw it.

Kristina's gift was a fired clay mold of her hands that she made in Art class at school. Below the imprint of the hands it read 'Happy Mother's Day 2008'. Kristina had glazed it in her favorite colors of Blue and Pink.

Finally, she opened Sam's present. One day, Sam had snuck her little sisters to a professional photographer who specialized in outdoor scenes. Each girl was dressed the same, a white tank top with a white unbuttoned blouse over top, blue jeans, and bare feet. All under a large tree; in the bright green grass, Sam sat in the middle and Kristina was sitting on her left leaning into her shoulder. Molly was standing on her right leaning into Sam's other shoulder. Sam had one arm around Kristina's shoulders and the other arm around Molly's waste. The two little ones each held a single red rose. They each wore their biggest and best smiles. The picture was so bright, beautiful, and full of color.

"I can't believe you did this…" Alexis let a single tear roll down her cheek. "This is absolutely gorgeous." She moved the food from over her lap and pulled the three girls in for a long hug. She kissed each on forehead. "Oh my god, I can't believe how blessed I am to have you three. I love you all so much."

"We're not done, Mommy…"Kristina said pulling away from the hug and grabbing her mother's hand. "Come on."

"Okay, Okay…" Alexis wiped the tears from her cheeks and followed the three girls to the living room.

"Okay, Mom, close your eyes and hold Sam's hand." Kristina had this surprise all planned out. Alexis did as she was told and Sam led her through the door onto the deck.

"Okay, open them Mommy…"

Alexis quickly opened her eyes. She smiled and put her hands up to her face. "Oh, girls. You planted all of my favorite flowers. When did you do this? The landscaping is perfect."

"We did it yesterday, with Lucky's help of course." Alexis skipped down the steps and into the yard to get a better look. She looked at the pansies and begonias perfectly placed.

"Oh it is perfect, girls" She said as she moved toward the snapdragons.

Suddenly, Sam called out to her "Mom, no, the …"

But it was too late. Alexis' foot slipped in the remaining mud that was remoistened in the morning dew. Sam's eyes widened as she watched her mother fall to the ground. She quickly rounded the girls and moved them back into the house, but her mother's voice still rang out loud and clear, "SAMANTHA!!"