I’m not sure who was more excited  about the Babycakes Cupcake Maker – the kids or I.  I mean, everyone loves cupcakes, right?  But the idea of making perfect cupcakes in a pink cupcake maker was just… fun.  And fun it was.

The cupcake maker has many uses (think mini fruit pies, from scratch cupcakes), but we kept it simple.  Using a store-bought cake mix and a tub of chocolate frosting, we still got in the fun cracking, measuring, and mixing, and then we were able to drop two-tablespoon heaps of batter into the maker and in about five minutes, we had perfect cupcakes. The idea is simple really, and unlike other kids’ baking products we’ve tried before, this one actually works.

The cupcake maker won’t sit gathering dust, it’s really easy to use and clean and makes just eight mini cupcakes, so it’s not like you’re going to break your calorie bank by indulging in your masterpieces.  While we loved this product, we did have the following thoughts:

• The element gets VERY hot VERY fast.  Try using a batter squeezer or even a baggie with a small hole in the tip to to batter up the maker, instead of dropping it in with a spoon.
• While it is non-stick, a bit of cooking spray would help the cakes come loose with less elbow grease.

That’s really it.  The Babycakes cupcake maker comes in several different colors, including pink (!), yellow, and red.  It’s about $30 and available here and in many online stores.

All products reviewed were provided to me at no cost by Select Brands.  All views and opinions reflected on this blog are my own and were in no way influenced by any outside party.

Photo credit Nicole Pavey

Jean Winegardner is a mom of 3 boys (Sam age 9, Jack age 7, and Quinn age 5) and has been married to her husband, Alex, for 11 years.  She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, a Washington, D.C. suburb, that provides her family with access to amazing museums, attractions, and activities of DC without having to live directly in the city.

Jean admits that as much as she likes “the peace and quiet of rural and wilderness areas, I am a person who truly enjoys living in a large metropolitan area.”  She also believes that living in an urban area provides additional services that might not be available elsewhere.  “I also have a child with autism, and it is so helpful to live in an area where I have more of a choice of therapists, schools, and intervention programs than I would have elsewhere.”

Jean is a part-time work-at-home mom who enjoys the flexibility of a position that requires internet research and data entry for a company in the hospitality industry.  “While I don’t make a lot of money from the job, I am able to set my hours pretty much however I like. There aren’t a lot of jobs I can work from 9 p.m. to midnight in my living room. I feel very lucky to have found this one.”

After having Sam in 2001, Jean struggled with “career angst” as Alex was finishing law school and completing a clerkship in Alaska.  When the family moved to Washington, D.C., she had two children under two and felt “it didn’t make financial sense for me to put my kids in day care and find a job.”   She believes the part-time from-home job became the perfect option after Quinn was born and enjoys having a distinct identity from that of “mother.”

Jean describes her biggest parenting challenges as “learning how different all children are” and “how to parent each of my three children in the manner that is best for them as individuals.”

“Having a child with autism, learning how to balance the needs of all of my children can be complicated, especially considering that Jack, my son with autism, often needs a lot of attention,” she said.  “My kids have had to learn early that because Jack’s brain works a little different, that he might need extra time or more understanding about certain things.”  Jean recognizes that sometimes it’s hard for her five year old to understand why he must wait in a waiting room for Jack to finish therapy three times a week or why she’s more lenient with him than his siblings but has a sense of pride about her boys’ cohesiveness.  “My guys have really risen to the occasion and love Jack and help him. It is wonderful to see how the three of them have come together as a very cool little unit, each with their own strengths and challenges. I’m really proud of that set of brothers.”

Jean is a highly regarded resource to other parents of children with autism because she readily shares her knowledge through blogging.  She writes an autism events and information blog for Montgomery County, Maryland at AutMont and a column called Autism Unexpected in the Washington Times Communities.  Jean also chronicles her stories of parenting on Stimeyland, her personal blog, and inspires others to declutter through The Junk Pyramid.

Jean is an avid blogger who is also dedicated to reading many blogs by online friends.   While she has a “pretty solid handle on how I want to parent,” she turns to parenting blogs for advice and support.

“I especially appreciate blogs by parents of children with autism who are older than Jack. It is really incredible to be able to see successes and challenges that I may have ahead of me before we get there. Even if their parenting styles or the challenges they face are different, I believe that knowledge and information are power, so reading their experiences can do nothing but help.”

As a stay-at-home mom who didn’t contribute to the family’s income source for 13 years, it’s only recently that Laura is able to make money doing work that allows flexibility and creativity. She has invested more time and energy into one of her true passions-photography and currently runs a photography business from her home.  Along with work related blogging and her site, Better in Bulk, Laura appreciates that she can be busy with work during the day while her kids are in school but can spend time with them when they’re home.  And,  like many women who work from home, when the kids go to bed, it’s back to work for her.

Laura is a huge fan of that oh-so-fragile first month of an infant’s life; the cuddling, nursing, baby wearing, and watching babies come ‘alive’ as their personality emerges is hands-down her favorite stage of childhood.  On the flip side, Laura admits that the pre-teen/ tween stage has been the hardest for her: “. . . the ages between 10 and 13 are difficult to begin with.  The kids don’t even know what they are feeling or thinking or wanting.  And parents are never right, never understand, and are never fair.  It’s a rough stage, but it does get better!”

One particular moment that stands out for her as being quite comical (and “still makes her laugh after 11 years”) was one day when her friend came over to chat.  Laura and her pal were both nursing babies at the time, and her almost 3-year-old daughter walked up to her friend and declared, “’Those are bigger than my mom’s!’”   Nothing like a child’s honesty to keep things real.

Can you imagine how long that must have taken?

Mercifully, moms don’t have to do that anymore thanks to an ingenious product called Mabel’s Labels. It’s simple, really. Mabel’s offers a line of labels to cover every mom’s need – sticky labels for the laziest of us (myself included) that stick to everything from the tags in kids clothes, to cups and bottles and pretty much anything else with a clean surface, iron-ons labels, even bag tags to help identify your child’s backpack.

Last winter, we put these adorable sticky labels to the test by adhering them to the back of my daughter’s snow boots to see how long they would last. Do I need to tell you that they’re still there? And our newest use for the labels is to put the tiny ones that come in the Combo Pack on the kids toothbrushes to avoid confusion as to which brush belongs to which kid. Problem solved.

Even more awesome is that the moms who created this fabulous Canadian-based company know that other moms constantly strive for organization in their lives (I do, for sure), so they developed a line for home.  You know those pesky electric cords that constantly clutter your rooms?  Label them with cord controls and easily identify which is which.  Label spice jars, even your recycling and garbage bins!   Seriously, this doesn’t get any smarter.

Check it out. I promise, you’ll be a fan for life.

I received two Combo Packs of Mabel’s Labels to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.