My daughter just turned 3 and we wanted to celabrate with her friends, but I wanted it to be simple and affordable. We invited 5 friends to meet us at the local ice cream shop.  The owners of the ice creme shop allowed each little girl to pick out her favorite flavor of ice cream and then they all got to go sit at a little table that was full of sprinkles and toppings and they got to creat their own sundae.  All the moms were there to help of course.  To prevent parents bringing siblings, in the invitation each girl received a ticket" to come to the sundae making party. I addressed the invitation to the friend and mailed it too so it would be more official then just handing it to the mom.  After the girls made their sundaes and ate them we played a game of pin the tail on the donkey and each girl was given a jar of play dough. I explained to the moms that we were not doing cake because there was enough sugar in the sundaes and I did not want to give a goody bag full of plastic junk and sugar. ALl the moms thanked me and told me they wished more parties were like this.  We did not open presents. I told moms ahead of time if they wished to bring a small present it was fine but my daughter would open them in private at home.  This way the other kids did not feel sad they did not get a toy I did not have to worry about my daughter not giving thanks properly or the embarresment of how she might act if she opened up something she already had and parents would not feel the need to outdo each other. Again I had parents tell me they loved the idea. The ice creme and only one accepted.  The ice creme place only charged me $2.50 a kid.  I offered to buy the moms a drink if they liked but only one took me up on it.  Overall I spent about $30.  The party was only 1 hr. and 15 min too.  I figured we are all busy and no one wants to be stuck at a kid party for 2-4 hours.  It really worked well.  Afterwards we came home opened our presents in private and then wrote thank you notes to all our friends."