Sue Hawley, center, helps plant flowers with her sons Benjamin, left, Nic, center, and Joe at their home in Slippery Rock. Nic and Joe, 12, are identical twins. Benjamin is 14. To celebrate Mother's Day, the Hawley boys typically do all of the chores for the week, including cooking.

Mother's Day: Out of 365 days, it's often the only one that showers moms with gifts, pampering and pancakes in bed.

For mothers of multiples like Patty Gall, the pancakes are plentiful.

Gall, of Jefferson Township, plans to sleep in and then enjoy a breakfast in bed served by her husband, Walt; and daughters Karley, 10; and Mary, Heather, Emily and Natalie, who turned 8 last week.

"It's pretty low-key," Gall said of the holiday, spent between her home and her mother's.

"Low-key" would not describe many aspects of the Gall household, however, beginning with the quads' premature birthdays — different days in different counties.Mary, the oldest, was born at 11:45 p.m. April 24, 2000, on the bathroom floor of Gall's mother's house.Mom and the newborn were flown via medical helicopter to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, where Heather, Emily and Natalie were delivered early the next day.Gall says she is used to strangers' apologetic first reactions when meeting the quadruplets, especially because three suffer from cerebral palsy."I say, 'Don't be sorry. God blessed me four times over,'" she said.Due to the premature birth, Emily, Natalie and Mary all have the condition, though Mary's case is very mild and hardly noticeable, Gall said."It takes it to a whole 'nother level with therapy and surgery and medicines," she said. "I've got my work cut out for me."

Susan Walker of Harmony also knows the ups and downs of raising multiples.Thinking her pregnancy was in trouble, Walker scheduled an early sonogram. Hoping to see one heartbeat, she and her husband, Tom, were floored to see three."He hasn't been the same since," Walker said.Born prematurely, triplets Zachary, Jacob and Taylor, now 6, spent 81 days in the neonatal intensive care unit at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh, coming home a few days apart following their older brother Colton's second birthday, Walker said.The Walkers spend Mother's Day in Pittsburgh participating in the Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure, in memory of Susan Walker's sister-in-law, Ruth, who died at age 38 in 2001."We have done it with the kids in strollers and wagons, but now they walk, she said.On vacation in Hilton Head, S.C., two years ago, walking was replaced by bicycling, although Colton was the only Walker child with his own bike.The triplets rode in baskets attached to their parents' cycles."It was crazy," Walker said. "We felt like the Clampetts because we had one cart with two kids in it and another with a kid and all the beach toys."As the president of the Cranberry Mothers of Multiples club, Walker said she and her children have gone to lunch with fellow club members and their children only to face questions about which preschool they are with.The four MOMs club board members are all mothers of triplets, she added."Colton makes it the baker's dozen," she said.Similarly, Sue and Trevor Hawley of Slippery Rock are raising 14-year-old Benjamin, as well as 12-year-old identical twins Nic and Joe.Mother's Day typically stretches out into a week of semi-relaxation for mom, Sue Hawley said.The boys do all the chores for the week — or at least try, she admitted."They cook all week," she said."That's one thing a mother of twins teaches children is how to cook. I don't think I've stuffed a turkey since they were 3."Although they're identical, Hawley said there are ways to tell the twins apart easily."One is sometimes a whole inch taller than his brother," she said.Occasionally Hawley said she will call one twin by the other's name, but only if she is in a hurry or can't see who she is speaking to.Teachers at Slippery Rock Elementary School had trouble identifying each twin at the start of the school year, she said."After they got to know them, by just personality alone they could tell the difference," she said."My twins are night and day."Overlooking the twins' unique qualities, Hawley said some friends and relatives in the past have sent a single birthday card."How do you split that in half?" she said.

To recognize them as individuals, Hawley bakes her sons two cakes, or one cake and a pan of brownies, depending on what they want.Nic and Joe also have insisted on dressing differently each day."I have never been able to dress them alike because one won't like (the outfit)," Hawley said.Travel is one thing Hawley doesn't have to double as the boys are involved in similar activities.Joe plays the piano and the tuba and trumpet in the school band, while his brother plays the baritone, she said.All three boys enjoy the outdoors, are Boy Scouts and play soccer.Hawley serves on the soccer executive board and also has coached, she said.Just as the twins maintain their own identities, Hawley said there is no doubt they share a connection closed to outsiders."They have had their own twin world ever since they were babies," she said."Even though they fight, they have a very strong bond."Strong sisterly bonds also guide the Gall quadruplets, often disproving the common misconception that raising multiples is a burden."It's such a huge adjustment in the beginning, but you don't think of how much joy you get out of them interacting," Gall said.Shopping for white First Communion dresses that each girl liked and did not match a sister's is a great example, she said."This is kind of like a glimpse into the future of the whole prom thing," she said.With two boys and a girl, none identical, Walker said identical outfits are rare at her house, but she does dress the triplets alike through color.Reds, oranges and yellows prevail because they are neither "boy" nor "girl" colors."It does make laundry easier because you have the same color going through," she said.Gall said she occasionally dressed her daughters the same when they were little because it was convenient."It was visually easier to track four little pink outfits," she said, though the girls would rather have chosen their own clothes."They absolutely could not be more different than they are," she said.

Aside from being the same age and having the same hair color, the nonidentical quadruplets have unique personalities and separate friends.Gall said having her daughters in the same second grade class at South Butler Primary School would be easy for homework purposes, but she requests they be placed in pairs, and mixes up the pairs each year."Everything is a challenge," from ordering pizza to going on vacation, Gall said.But she would make the decision to deliver quadruplets four times over again."It's hugs and kisses four times over," she said.<br></br><br></br><br></br>

Whitney Flavion adjusts the helmet for Natalie Gall while her siblings and mother watch at Slippery Rock University's Storm Harbor Equestrian Center. Natalie is one of Patty Gall's quadruplets, who turned 8 last week. From left are Patty, and Natalie's sisters Emily, Karley, 10, Mary and Heather. Alexandra Flavion, Whitney's sister, is kneeling behind her sibling. The family was gearing up to go horseback riding at the Storm Harbor, which serves individuals with disabilities. Three of the four quadruplets have cerebral palsy.

Sue Hawley kicks a soccer ball around with her twin sons Joe, left, and Nic, right, and her other son, Benjamin, at their home in Slippery Rock. Although the twins are identical, Sue says they couldn't be more different.

Gall and his daughter, Emily, get acquainted with a horse at the Storm Harbor Equestrian Center in Slippery Rock. Emily is one of Walt and Patty Gall's quadruplets. With five children, Mother's Day is always an event at the Gall house in Jefferson Township.