My daughter turned one last fall, we had a small party with immediate relatives (grandparents and an aunt and uncle) and my best friend and her two sons. There were 12 of is total, including the baby. We blew up a few balloons for decorations. My daughter loves Elmo, so I made a small round cake for her and decorated it myself, my Elmo turned out pretty good. We used the rest of the cake batter to make Elmo cupcakes, those turned out pretty cute too. She loved it and overall it was simple and stress free AND we got to enjoy her birthday also.
My brother, on the other hand, has gone overboard with all of his children and their birthdays (hence why we won’t do it)...anyway, it seems like they spend more time worrying about the party then enjoying the day, for what it’s worth.
My mother-in-law only allowed the number of kid guests to equal the babies age, so if they are 3, there are 3 kiddos there. I personally love that idea and we’ll be doing that from now on.