On Saturday, we were at the in-law's house celebreating my nephew's birthday, and he, along with several other children, were playing outside in the back yard. I went to gather up the kids because all the food was ready. My nephew came toward me holding something on a stick, he said it was a spider, and I was not alarmed; I assumed it was a little spider. However, I was wrong! It was a very large spider. The abdomen was large and tear-drop shaped. I did not see any markings on it, although I vaguely recall some white on the body of it. The legs were not thick at all, they looked rather stringy. Can anyone tell me what kind of spider this was? It freaked me out quite badly, and my biggest concern was that it could have bitten one of the children; luckily, no such thing happened.. thankfully!

First, be aware that most spiders found outside are unlikely to bite humans until it's their absolute last resort, so as long as the kids didn't try to grab it with bare hands they weren't in danger.

Second, from the description it was probably one of the orb web spinning spiders, commonly referred to as garden spiders. Some can be quite colorful, and others are rather plain.

These guys?

daddy long legs spider - Google Images