When I was growing up I usually just had a small party with friends, but my mom always made it special. We didn't have family nearby, so that wasn't a factor in how many people would attend.

Now that I have kids, we have a lot of family nearby (15 immediate family), so our birthday parties for the girls have been getting rather large when we include their friends (and subsequently their parents). I feel like it's getting harder to find a place to host everyone so I'm thinking of making a switch to just having a super small pizza/cake party with family on one day and then doing a small party with her friends on another day.

How do you do your birthday parties?