Your best birthday parties. That's what FAMILYFUN was looking for when they put out a call to readers. The letters arrived in unprecedented numbers and included photos of cakes and homemade invitations, confetti and handwritten stories, and tons of other ideas on what you need to take two regular hours of the year and turn them into the perfect pivot point from one age to the next.

Friends, family, cake - those are the basics, but how do parents really pump up the fun?

We settled on these criteria for creating the best birthday celebrations:

•First, the best parties need to be indulgent. When else, if not on your birthday?
•Second, they have to be rich in ideas, but not expensive.
•Third, they have to be as memorable for the guests as for the birthday boy or girl.
•Lastly, parties should have flexible ideas, parties that invite adaptation. You'll see in the Cinderella party, for example, that the idea of getting all dolled up might not turn the spurs of a five-year-old cowpoke, but a Pecos Bill theme just might.

We hope you're inspired by the following three party ideas that combine terrific cakes, invitations, and surprises.

Children's book author Lynne Bertrand lives in Chesterfield, Massachusetts.