Family Birthday Rules

I feel like birthdays get out of control for kids these days and our family has a tight budget so we instituted some rules to make things fair.  In our house, you get a big family birthday for your 1st, 2nd and 3rd birthday.  You don't have any "friends" at that age so your family and family friends are who you would invite as a parent anyway.  I make food or have my husband grill us some hotdogs and usually have a pinata and the obligatory but delicious cake from Costco.  Then on your 4th birthday forward, I figure you have probably started having preference for kids that you like to play with so I ask my kids who they would like to go out with and we do something more special but with less people.  For my older daughters 4th birthday, we invited a couple kids and their moms to Build-A-Bear to build a new stuffed friend and go out to get ice cream afterwards.  It was very fun for her and not overwhelming.  It wasn't overwhelming budget-wise either.  This year for our older daughter's 5th birthday we gave her a list of choices and she decided she wanted to go on a Mommy/Daddy date without her little sister....and she wanted food from China.  So we took her to PF Changs and to see a 3-D movie and she was thrilled.  It was a special memory and didn't break the bank!