DD turns three in June, and she has plenty of friends she wants there. Both her previous birthdays were family and our friends, this will be the first child-focused one. So I'm after ideas, what did you do?

A couple of weeks ago we went to a third birthday party at a hotel with a play centre. I think they basically invited every daycare buddy, plus the friends with kids. On the same day there were two other birthday parties going on, it was hot and cramped and loud, and I think we'll be avoiding that.

So I think we'll invite her two besties from daycare (twins, so that's easy), our next door neighbours (have a three year old and one year old we play with), my friend from work with a three year old (from the party above) and a long-time friend with a two year old (they get along well). So that's only 6 kids, that feels alright, and maybe we can invite a couple more daycare kids after talking to the carers to see who she plays with.

We wanted to avoid doing the party at home - too much cleaning and stuff - and were going to go to the local playground at the oval. But it'll be June, so it might rain, and there are no toilets.

So what did you do? What did and didn't work and why? What's your best tip?