Can't find momma spider :(

I'm looking for a momma garden spider to the spiderlings I found; went out tonight with a flashlight even though it was raining bad, hoping to find her. She wasn't anywhere nearby the house where the babies were, and nowhere in the general vicinity of that. :(
Where could she be? Could she have died protecting the egg sac? All of her babies seem to have made it--there's a TON more I found today, two different sections of them, building webs in clusters on dandelion weeds. They survived all this rain today by huddling under the broad leaves of the weeds.
The ones I put in the tank I had to bring back outside; my mom and I agreed it would be best to not have any more pets. :(
But they are still in the tank, 7 beautiful baby spiders, bright yellow and black, making a web across the top. So far it's not round like most webs--it's a rectangular shaped one going across the top of the octagon shaped tank. Looks like a zig zag pattern may be starting in the middle, but it's too early in the building process to tell.
I'm so proud of my spider babies! I go out and check on them every 2 hours or so, and hold some of them (usually get a stray on the tip of my finger, don't want to mess up the delicate webs they are building). They are really cute and don't bite, but they can jump pretty well it seems--I think I saw one jump off my finger to a small leaf.
I'm wondering if these are garden spiders, though. The babies I saw on the internet are almost entirely yellow in pictures--these little guys look like baby bumblebees, a yellow stripe in the middle and the black on the outside, almost.
But there aren't that many spiders with a bright yellow color in this area, we mostly have hobos and brown recluse spiders which are dull brown and black.
Do they definitely look like garden spider babies from the photos? They are tiny little things, and garden spiders get pretty big; is it really possible these teeny little babies will grow into those huge spiders?
Anyway, I'm going to continue checking on the babies for the momma spider, and keep looking for her. Wherever she is, I have news--her babies have hatched and are ok! :)

does that zig zag pattern look something like this?

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...iderandweb.jpg

if so then what you've got are writing spiders aka corn spider aka black and yellow garden spider. the adults look like this...

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...tingspider.jpg

other characterizing features/behaviors -
1) they bounce their web when frightened
2) they design zig zag markings through the middle of their web &
3) they, from what i've seen, always position their bodies with their legs splayed out like an "x".

i've got one that builds her web in my garden and the web extends from within the base of my hollyhocks to my daisy plants so i gotta be careful when cutting the daisies to fill my vase.
i've appropriately named her charlotte.

here's a link i found with info on them.

http://www.squidoo.com/writing-spiders

i must say though i was beyond freaked and grossed out the first time i laid eyes on charlotte and almost killed her until my daughter came to the rescue telling me it wasnt a bad spider and after she told me a little more about them i let charlotte live and even took a liking to her when i realized she was making good meals out of the undesireable bugs in my garden.
i like what she does for my garden but i still shudder and wince a little when i see her and just make great effort to not disturb her.
heck last year i was clipping daisies and talking to her, well, ok i was reassuring her haha. :oops:
"dont mind me. i'm just getting my flowers." :rolleyes:

and another link for info

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/216/

The spiders grouped together have just made little ropes of web to dangle off of the dandelion from. They seem to sleep at certain points during the day, and don't spread out in an "X"--they curl up into a ball as if they are dead, but when you poke them they wake up and crawl on your finger, so I know they aren't dead.