M.F.
I think the home photo printers are more expensive than using a photo lab and the ink quality is very poor. Granted, technology advances pretty quickly, but photos we printed of my daughter from 4 years ago are already discolored.
My mother has the Kodak Easyshare system and while it's convenient to print photos immediately, the color quality isn't as nice as images we get from photo labs.
If you're looking for a convenient way for kids to share photos with friends, make photo crafts and projects, just about any of the printers on the market will do. HP and Kodak are probably the better brands.
If you want your photos to be around a while, stick to the photo labs. We have been very happy with Sam's and Walmart's online photo labs (free shipping to pick up in the store). Walgreen's is the worst, and Target was pretty bad too.