We had the immediate family (the people who are a part of Jacob's life) and one close friend and her daughter (same age as Jacob).

We arranged it around Jacob's sleep times and had lots of finger food and cake. Pretty well everything we had food-wise was suitable for children - it was Jacob's birthday after all! But we all had a good time and enjoyed the food!

I'll never be one to have huge parties as I like to keep things as close-knit as possible and for Jacob to be surrounded by the people he knows and loves and is comfortable with (and sees frequently), rather than inviting everybody just to be polite or for the sake of it. Otherwise, I think it not only becomes a financial burden, but I think it also becomes a bit overwhelming for adults and children alike. Even with around 20-odd people that we had for Jacob's birthday, he got a bit overwhelmed by it all and needed a bit of space and time to himself. For you as parents, if you had oodles of people it can be hard as you'll be stressing all the time hoping that your child is ok, that everybody is happy, has a drink and some food, that you've gone around and spoken/thanked everyone etc etc!!!

So with all of that in mind, we'll do a similar thing this year too, but we will be inviting another friend and her daughter also as they have become very close. So that will mean the same guests as last year, plus a couple more, so Jacob will have a couple of friends plus immediate family.