Travel Archives - Kids 'R' Simple

PhotoBook with Canon HD FotoJournal

I used to print out photos and put into self adhesive photo albums and add in some keepsakes like the hospital delivery mum-and-child wrist-tags and ultrasound photos. It took a lot of time to develop the photos, arrange manually, and re-do the arrangement if I had missed a page or left with a couple of photos in the end not knowing what to do with them. The cost of developing photos and buying the albums were not cheap. And the albums are really bulky.

When I chanced upon PhotoBooks at a roadshow, the PhotoBook displays had me sold to the idea and since then, I have been developing PhotoBooks instead of doing up albums. The advantages of PhotoBooks are aplenty!

Advantages:
1) Arrangement of photos is easily done by clicking on the computer software.
2) No need to make multiple trips to the photo shop and Popular bookstore to buy albums.
3) I can shut off my computer if I am doing halfway without stacks of photographs lying around on the floor.
4) I can add interesting masks, decorations, cute pictures and nice texts on PhotoBooks.
5) PhotoBooks are slim and do not take up much space.
6) I can duplicate PhotoBooks and gift to parents and friends. I had duplicated 3 PhotoBooks as Christmas gifts to my parents and my in-laws for a common family trip. I find it a very meaningful gift especially when our parents usually do not print out photos on their own.

The cost of PhotoBooks varies with different PhotoBook company. The earlier PhotoBooks that I had bought were pretty affordable. They had promotions and it worked out to be about $68 for a 40 page soft copy photobook. The app was user-friendly but the photo quality was not so good.

Then I had a chance to review Canon HD FotoJournal (PhotoBooks) and I must say that I am totally impressed with the quality of the prints and the quality of the pages! I am not saying that because this is a sponsored post, but it is every bit the truth!

I had done up 2 PhotoBooks from the Canon FotoJournal app. One is a square 10″ x 10″ Softcover PhotoBook and the other is a Landscape 8″ x 12″ Softcover PhotoBook. Even though it is stated as softcover, it is really a good quality hard cover!

For the square 10″ x 10″ PhotoBook, I use it to compile my Master 5’s birth to 4 yo photos. As it always happens when you have many kids, the first 2 kids’ albums were completed way before they reached 2 years old and my Master 5 only has his first one done up last month!

With the landscape 8″ x 12″ PhotoBook, I put together the photos from our Malaysia Road Trip that we went last June.

Steps in doing up a PhotoBook with Canon HD Fotojournal:
1. Choose a PhotoBook – visit Canon eshop to buy the PhotoBook size and type you like and you will receive an email from Fotohub that provides the voucher code for printing the PhotoBook.
2. Download PhotoBook software – download the FotoIdeas software
3. Create PhotoBook – There are many templates, layouts, masks, decorative stickers and etc to explore. You will be having fun exploring on each of them.
4. Choose and edit Photos first – Before importing photos into the software, I will choose the photos I want in a folder and edit them one by one. Canon software has simple editing functions too.
5. Install your favourite fonts – Ensure you have your favourite fonts downloaded in your computer so that you can use them on the PhotoBook.
6. Arrange Photos – Once photos are good to use, I will arrange the photos on the cover, on every page till the last back cover.
7. Decorate PhotoBook – When Layout of photos are done, I will then decorate each photo and each page.
8. Save – Do remember to save if you are leaving it halfway done to do other things.
9. Send for printing – Send to FotoOutlets or Foto Online and they will prompt you to enter the voucher code that you had previously received.
10. Check the preview – An email with a pdf preview will be sent to you to vet through your masterpiece and if you are satisfied, click “confirm” or if not click “disapprove”. I like this function as it will show you how the end product will look like.
Done!

Be prepared to spend a few days working on one PhotoBook. It takes some effort and time to complete one but it is definitely worth it as you will be showing off the PhotoBook to friends and relatives and reminiscing the moments with your kids.

As compared to my earlier PhotoBooks, Canon HD Fotojournal definitely produces better quality pictures in high resolution. The pages are really thick! My old PhotoBooks have decent pages that are similar to those high quality brochures, but Canon’s pages are thicker than my old PhotoBooks’ soft cover pages! You can imagine that the so-called Canon softcover is actually more like a hard cover!

Look at the thick pages and the front and back covers!

Because of this, each page is also waterproof too. As we accidentally spilled some water on the pages, the water did not seep through. Each PhotoBook comes with a casing to protect the book. My old PhotoBooks only provided a transparent self adhesive wrapper.

The software is easy to use although I would love to have one preview button to preview my progress instead of waiting for the finalized preview version. The rest of the features are useful especially the layout function. When I find myself out of ideas, I would simply drag the photos I want on a page and drag the layout and drop on that page which will automatically arrange the photos in the chosen layout format.

With better quality pictures and pages, the price naturally is steeper than all my previous PhotoBook purchases. The price of the Square 10″ x 10″ is $125 and that of Landscape 8″ x 12″ is $75, both consist of 20 pages.

If you have never tried your hands on a PhotoBook, perhaps, you should really start one soon! Printing family and kids’ photos out onto a book is definitely a worthwhile activity to work on instead of keeping the photos in our hard disk. What’s more, it makes a really meaningful gift to loved ones 😃

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post by Canon. We were gifted vouchers for 2 PhotoBooks for the purpose of this review. I spent many late nights and early mornings to do up the PhotoBooks, so all opinions are definitely 100% mine 🙂

Mommy’s Guilt for Travelling Without Kids

When it comes to travelling without the kids, I am not that cool. I have my guilty moments. It was hard when I first traveled for my business trip solo to the US and Canada, braving through the tears of the little ones every night counting down to the trip, so much such that I did some preparatory work before and during the trip to make me and my kids feel better. You can read about what I did over here.

Recently a conversation with my mum brings out the guilt in me which I was trying so hard to suppress. She told me that times have changed. Couples nowadays (she is referring to me and my hubby) will choose to travel on holidays without the kids while such couple trips were almost unheard of during my parents’ times. If parents in those days were to travel for holidays, they would bring their kids along. Not that my parents did that since we were not well-to-do to travel. But you get the idea.

We were lucky to have supportive parents even though they may not agree on our couple trips. In fact, we have been to several such trips in the past:

After my first born, Kel and I traveled to Taiwan for a couple holiday.

After my second born, Kel and I traveled on a cruise and a couple more short trips to nearby Batam resorts.

After my third born, we stop travelling without kids because we think that it will be hard on our parents to care for 3 young children. Hence, we decide to wait till the youngest is older and easier to care for before we resume our couple holidays.

In between, we travel separately for business, incentive and girls’ trip, but there will always be one of us at home with the kids. And knowing that one spouse is at home with them, the other one can travel with a peace of mind without worrying if the grandparents are coping well with minding the little ones.

When it comes to travelling without the kids, I am definitely no cool mama. I have my guilty moments, and plenty of that. It was hard when I first traveled for my business trip solo to the US and Canada, braving through the tears of the little ones every night counting down to the trip. I had to do some preparatory work before and during the trip to make me and my kids feel better. You can read about what I did over here.

For the first couple trip, it was not easy for me to leave my eldest with the grandparents, and I had to bring along one of her two favourite bolsters and hug it every night in the hotel. We called home using the calling card every night (those were the days without facetime and internet calls). It was a little harder on the second and subsequent trips when we had to leave 2 children at home with one more little one to miss. It is even harder to leave 3 kids now to do the same.

So after a hiatus of about 6 years, Kel and I have finally decided that our kids are older now and easier to leave with the grandparents, and about the right time to have a short getaway to recharge, reconnect, enjoy a holiday which is really planned for ourselves. Well, we only booked our trip after we had our parents’ support to take care of the kids.

Choosing the getaway dates

There was much consideration this time round. I had to choose a period when the elder kids had finished their examinations as I wanted to be there to help with their revision during their papers. I had to ensure the dates are during school days because if they are in school during daytime, they will not miss us too much and caregivers need not handle 3 kids for long hours. The dates should not touch weekends because I want to spend time with them on weekends, ferrying them to their art and piano classes. This means that I have to take weekdays off from work.

Every aspect was taken care of, including ensuring school pocket money was topped up in their wallets, breakfast preparation, lots of pep talk to the littlest one, etc, etc.

Reactions from the kids

And so we left for the getaway and back to see the following reactions from the kids during this period:

Missy 11 was wishing us an enjoyable trip and looking forward to many gifts for her and her brothers. But on the morning of departure, which she told me later on, that she silently wept after I saw her to school.

Master 9 asked me why we did not bring them along for this trip. I felt a lump in my throat at this question but I tried my best to explain that Papa and Mummy wanted to have some couple time to ourselves. Subsequent days of calling home, I felt worse when he showed no interest to talk to me through facetime.

Master 4 seemed to understand when I told him for 3 nights, he would have 2 grandmas to take turns to keep him company during bedtime. But when we were overseas, every evening, he would asked his grandpa why Papa and Mummy had not returned after 7pm.

All these tore at my heart.

If it is so hard, why do we still do it?

Benefits of couple retreat

Some will say that we are selfish, but I believe on the benefits of reconnecting with my other half for a short time.
1. We believe that we can do things we love as a couple without waiting for the kids are older to pursue our interests.
2. It is important for us to rekindle the fire in us without minding the little ones. When the parents are happy, kids will be happy too.
3. It is also a good chance for the children to bond with the grandparents every night.

The benefits as written are not a long list, but really, the main reason is to reconnect as a couple free of little ones’ screams, naps, restricted itinerary.

Now that we are back from our 4D3N Bangkok trip, I realized that I really missed them very much. Every interesting thing I saw on the street, I would think of bringing them to the same place to see what I saw. Every shopping trip was really to buy gifts for them to make them happy and compensate for not bringing them with us. I realized that I had to be extra careful and take really good care of ourselves so that we return safely to the kids. And on the last day of the trip, I was looking forward to seeing them back home.

While we were away, the elder kids wrote diary entries to me. I had told them to do so if they missed us. What they wrote touched me very much and it was really sweet to read their thoughts. And Master 9 was really sweet in his penned down words even though he did not talk much to us when we called home.

If you ask me if I would travel on the next couple trip without the kids, I may really hesitate. Perhaps, it would be good to wait till the kids are in their teens before I can travel without guilt.

Do you feel guilty like me when you travel without the kids?

Hotel Jen Puteri Harbour – great price, great food, great location

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If you are looking for an alternative to staying in Legoland Hotel, and simply want to stay near Legoland, Sanrio Hello Kitty Town or The Little Big Club, then Hotel Jen Puteri Harbour is a top recommendation for you.

Legoland is about a 5 min drive away from the hotel, and next to Hotel Jen are Hello Kitty Town and The Little Big Club.

With its proximity to Singapore, Hotel Jen is a 15-minute drive from the Malaysia-Singapore Second Link , i.e., without JAM!

Hotel Jen Puteri Harbour, being a 4 star hotel with good standard hotel rooms and great hotel facilities, plus an impressive breakfast spread, the price of Malaysian Ringgit $455 per night for a Deluxe Harbour View room (SGD150++) is super affordable! Continue reading “Hotel Jen Puteri Harbour – great price, great food, great location”

Our family 5D4N HongKong-Macau Recommended Places To Go

We had an enjoyable time in HongKong and Macau in June this year. We always try to bring our parents to a holiday trip out of Singapore every year ever since we have kids. For as long as we can afford and our parents can walk the trip with us, we will strive to bring them to at least one country for holiday. This time round, we went on a 5D4N trip with 2 nights in HK and 2 nights in Macau. And there are some absolutely places that we think are worth staying, going and dining! Also, check out where I got cheap tickets to these attractions 🙂

HongKong Itinerary – Recommended places to stay, places to go and places to eat

Where to Stay – Renaissance Harbour View Hotel Hong Kong

Address: 1 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong

Phone:+852 2802 8888

Website: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/hkghv-renaissance-hong-kong-harbour-view-hotel/

This hotel is in Wanchai and near the Harbour. We can go to Hong Kong island by ferry which takes around 5 minutes, faster than MRT.

Boat trip from Kowloon to Hongkong

We had an adjoining room with 2 grandparents and the room was big enough to accomodate the 5 of us. On one evening, we saw a platter of fruits plus macaroons in our room and that pleased my girl so much that she rated this hotel as the best that she had ever stayed. Just because of the macaroons. Kids are so easy to please 🙂 The hotel rooftop pool was also our kids’ favourite.

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Rennaisance pool

One plus point about this hotel is that it is pretty near to many tourist spots. It is not so far from The Peak too.

Where to go – 1) The Peak and Madam Tussauds

Address: Victoria Peak, click on this link to see how you can get here

Phone: (852) 2522 0922

Website: https://www.thepeak.com.hk/en/

Before the trip, we bought the tickets to Madam Tussauds online which had a 40% discount!! That is pretty steep discount. So, please buy the tickets before you travel to HK. Continue reading “Our family 5D4N HongKong-Macau Recommended Places To Go”

How to survive a family travel with young children and elders

Travel

My husband and I have been travelling with our children and our parents since we have 2 kids 5 years ago.

We have travelled in large groups including with extended families to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Phuket, Cruise, Malaysia, Australia and the furthest is Sweden.

Whenever friends tell me that they worry about travelling with young children or even worry about giving up freedom of travelling after having kids, I find that their worries are rather unfounded. What you really need is to have a positive mindset and some good planning, and things will just work out naturally. There is really nothing big to fret upon. Continue reading “How to survive a family travel with young children and elders”