Practice Pumpkin #2

I'm not going to lie, guys. Practice pumpkin #2 was a total bust. I swear the thing was made of cement or something because it could not be carved! This pumpkin most definitely did not turn out as well as the first pumpkin. And didn't really get me closer to my goal of carving the best pumpkin ever.

Here's what happened. Tonight after going to a Halloween party, Emily, Katherine, and I thought it would be nice to carve pumpkins in keeping with the Halloween theme. Emily has a ton of awesome pumpkin stencils, so I chose one that I thought would look really great: an alien. I was pretty excited about this!

But I should have known something was not right when I couldn't cut into the top of the pumpkin. I tried a few different knives (including a really big kitchen knife) but to no avail! Both Katherine and Emily mocked my weakness until I made them try and they conceded that it was hard as a rock. Luckily, Emily has super human strength and with some effort, cut the top off for me.

At that point, I put the pattern on the pumpkin and started poking holes in it to create a stencil (a technique I do not normally use, but was told was the only way to go by Emily). But guess what? This cement pumpkin was virtually impenetrable and broke the pokey thingy! What the!?

So I got another poker and got back to work, all the time dreading actually having to cut into this thing. But finally, it was time. I think I can sum up the whole experience with one word: unsuccessful. After breaking my third knife, I gave up.

Don't judge me for quitting. It was a hard decision. But I just starting thinking, "what do I have to prove!? This pumpkin is killing me! It's giving me hand muscle cramps, a horrible headache, and is just so not worth it! This pumpkin sucks!" So here's the final product:

Yeah, I told you. It's bad. No mouth, no hands, no nose. Can you even tell it's an alien!? Emily said she thinks some teenagers are going to try to smash it. But to them I say: I'd like to see you try.