And the Winner is.......

We had our 4th annual pumpkin carving competition, and right before we left the apartment, Mark and I picked out an awesome, super difficult, cool pumpkin pattern to carve. We got to the competition early,  started working before everyone else, and we finished after everyone else.

The judges arrived and everyone was sizing up their pumpkins to see who they thought would win. I have to be honest here. I REALLY thought we had it in the bag. I mean, we've had some good pumpkins over the last few years, but I felt like this year was a "down" year as far as the other pumpkins went. I really thought our pumpkin was above and beyond the level of the others.

No offense to the other competitors - they were all great, I'm just saying.

So - back to the judges.

They had it down to the top three (mind you, there were probably about 12 pumpkins or so in the competition). All thirty of us were outside, and the judges began to announce the top three. There were murmurings of..."Kathryn's got this in the bag" and  "Kathryn's is totally the best". The funny thing is, every year Mark and I have what most people would consider to be the best pumpkin, yet we continually get 2nd place. It's actually comical. So, we were all anxiously awaiting the reveal of the pumpkin. Third place came and went - and I knew our pumpkin was still up there... we were top two. (Big surprise).

So.... the judges began to reveal the "2nd place" pumpkin.

It.was.ours.

IT WAS OURS!?! WE GOT SECOND PLACE!!!????? WHAT???!!!

We cheered and pretended to be excited, and my brother-in-law started laughing hysterically. He said quietly amongst the crowd, "every year Kathryn has the best pumpkin, and every year she gets second place."

Now, you may wonder, "if hers really is the best, why doesn't it win?" Well, people, that's the problem we've been trying to overcome. It boils down to the judges. Judges get too sentimental. They let their kids vote. They like pumpkins with a certain "theme". Okay. As we mentioned previously, this is NOT ABOUT THE THEME. This is about the BEST. I mean I could carve a heart and probably win because the judges would like it because it's about love. Seriously. Ever heard of levels of difficulty? Did they even notice how hard my pumpkin was? THE SHADING???!!! BUT, since we've gotten beaten out by the theme issue before, this year, we went with the Halloween theme AND had the difficulty and awesomeness. We carved a wizard. Doesn't get anymore Halloween than that!

And who won first? My friends, Levi and Dayna, that I INVITED! They beat us. With an inferior pumpkin!

Anyway, so then, here I am, totally perplexed at how we didn't win. Then the judges come out with it. One of the judges totally throws the other under the bus and he's all like "Kathryn, I thought yours was the best". I'm thinking, then why the heck didn't we win? Then the other sentimental judge, starts talking about the eyes on the other pumpkin, the "winner". That the eyes were so cute because they were looking out the window. See below:

THE EYES??!!! That's why they beat us? THE EYES???!!!!! Oh my word.

So you want to see our pumpkin? Our "Should Be 1st Place Pumpkin"? (It's really hard to capture the awesomeness of our pumpkin because of the intricacies and a digital camera. I wish you guys could see it in person)

Yes, that's Harry Potter.

And everyone knew it was Harry Potter. And we didn't win.

UGH!!!!

Maybe next year....

Here's our family pic from the competition:

~Kathryn