Party Planning

I am currently in the midst of planning my first ever kids birthday party!   ARRRHHH where do i start.............
Since my beautiful babe was born i've been looking forward to being able to throw her a beautiful 1st birthday celebration....well ok maybe i've been looking forward to this for a while longer than that. In my mind the theme of the party has changed 101 times, its gone from not really having a theme to being a mermaid theme, to a wot wots theme, back to a mermaid theme, to an under the sea theme and so on. till one night while trolling party supply websites i came across some simple and very cute 1st birthday invites...i fell in love with them and then the theme was set....
da da da daaaa HOT AIR BALLOONS!  yes random but its going to be so cute, well we hope so anyway.  So invites done.....whats next??? 
ahhh yes the cake....again while doing a bit of research on the web i stumbled across a cake that is exactly the image on the invites.....perfect!  i quickly got the number of a great cake lady from my sister and i felt that everything was coming together! Then my beautiful bestie had her little girls 2nd birthday party and made an AMAZING cake...and the pressure went on from my mum....'if bestie can do it, you can too, it's nicer to be able to say you did it yourself' this from the women who never made our birthday cakes! but the mummy guilt started to creep in...i chose to ignore it and still go ahead with ordering the cake to be made. until.... while doing the weekly supermarket shop i saw a small box of 'white icing' in the baking isle. for some reason i put it in the trolley and within the next couple of hours i found myself baking a cake and having a play around with the icing...this all of a sudden it turned into a trail run of the birthday cake. through-out this whole afternoon of baking and decorating i was still telling myself that i was just having a play around to see what it might look like, but i would still order the cake for the party. well once the cake was completed the pressure really come on from my mum, bestie, husbandito and my online angels (my mums group), i was hearing lots of 'don't pay for something you can do yourself'. well i've caved into peer pressure and now have all the supplies for the cake sitting in the pantry, waiting for me. my obsessive and perfectionist personality has totally taken over and i must admitted to having had a 'play around' with the icing decorations more than once since. this has also fuelled my online shopping addiction as i really really really needed to get new food colourings, and decorating tools!  
Let's not even get start on the actual party decorations! I've spent days sewing meters and meters of bunting, have a pile of balloons sitting in the cupboard and all sorts of other bits and bobs ready to go...which will be a whole other blog in it's self!
All in all i'm finding it to be a mix of me loving ever moment of it and that of mad crazy 'why the hell am i doing this to myself' stress.  
but we all know i love it.