Houston Concert

Last concert...waaaahhhhh.... :( But it was a great one! Tallowood is a very beautiful church with lots of stained glass windows. And, as in Frisco, there were no bad seats.

I forgot to mention before that for the Frisco and Houston concerts, Minyung came from South Korea and Ayaka came from Japan! We invited my former babysitter, Natalie, to the concert. (Best babysitter ever!) Now she's a teacher in Houston. Her youngest brother is in my class at school. She brought her co-worker, Lilly, too! She's from Colombia! They both loved the concert - even though they didn't know a lot about Libera...yet. :)

The whole concert sounded wonderful! It was very special, because for some reason we could hear individual boys' voices really well. I could especially pick out Freddie, Kavana and Matthew Jansen. They have very strong voices. Somehow I can always hear Josh's voice. :) The little newbies have GREAT voices, too! They are all so musically expressive! Libera's future looks great with so many excellent, little ones.

Ralph was awesome on his many, many solos. It was like he didn't even need a microphone. Clear and strong. Just wow! Freddie was perfect on "Always With You." He sings like he's thinking through each word and enunciation. It's always so great. Josh was very relaxed on his solo and floated up to the "high" notes quite nicely. :) Shout out to Luke! He's got such a great voice and hit all of his high notes perfectly.

"Te Lucis" was really cool. The 7 boys stood in the baptismal (an opening high above the platform where they baptize people) which was really neat. Sam thought it was quite funny...more on that below. :)

Freddie's speech with Cassius was really great tonight! They managed to ham it up even more this time, with Liam coming forward and tapping Cassius on the shoulder. When Cassius didn't move, Liam knocked on his own head (like Cassius has a thick skull) and picked him up and moved him. Cassius then pulled back his own hood, looked from his spot, pointed at center stage where he had started from (like "how did I get over here?") and then shrugged. :) The audience was quite enthusiastic in general, but that got a big laugh.

Daniel was awesome as usual on "Stay With Me." "Ave Verum" gave me chills when the big boys are standing in the front. They look so... powerful! And another shout out to Cassius on "Love and Mercy!" :)

Oh, Eoghan. Oh, Jakob. Your voices. Sigh.

Standing ovations! And the 6th and final concert of the tour was done!

Then, on to the M&G! The first person in line was Sammy's younger sister! His mom was there, too! :) Quite a few of the boys told us that they were not ready to go home yet (although all of the adults seemed about ready to.) They even said that they wouldn't mind staying in the US longer! I wish you could, too!

Natalie (my babysitter) didn't know any of the boys' names, so she asked Henry what his name is. After he said "Henry," she said, "You should just try mixing it up a little. Next time someone doesn't know your name, tell them your name is Charles." Henry thought that was pretty funny! :D

We told Kavana that we could hear his voice and that it sounded really good. I hope he gets a solo someday! :) Sammy seems to be enjoying singing the low notes now. "It's exciting to learn how to use your new voice," as Sam would say in his speech. Speaking of Sam, he asked us if we saw them singing up in the baptismal for "Te Lucis." We told him yes and that we hoped there wasn't water in there. He laughed and said it was really strange. They were standing on the drain. :D

Eoghan! Eoghan! That boy is a heartbreaker! Check out the pictures of him below! Look at that face! lol! So...in keeping with the trend...he can sing...he's funny...he takes really good pictures...he's cute...yeah, he'll be in Libera a while. ;)

My mom said to Josh that she was sorry he was leaving (the US.) He though she meant leaving the choir, and he grinned and said, "Who says I'm leaving?" So...Josh isn't going anywhere anytime soon. :)

We asked Thomas at the end if we should call him Thomas or Tom. He replied, "Either one is fine." Then my mom asked, "Which one would YOU like?" and he said, "Tom." So Thomas is now Tom. And Ben is now Nano Ben. There we are. Two of the six newbies have nicknames already. :) By the way...we need to start thinking of a way to give nicknames to all of the Matthews! There were three Matthews sitting within five seats of each other last night! Any suggestions? There's Matthew RA, Matthew J, and Matthew M...but that seems too cumbersome.

Now about some of these signatures. You can tell that little Michael tries to write his name so perfectly. Apparently, it was just getting to be too long of a name to sign over and over. So on some programs his signature is simply "MR". MUCH easier! :) Carlos signed his name "Carlos Taco!" What?! Yes, he includes the exclamation point! And, no, it's not another boy messing with someone else's signature. We have 8 programs like that! Maybe that's his nickname? :D

Freddie always signs over his face. I asked him if he does that because he doesn't like his picture. He made a face and nodded "yes." But I like your picture, Freddie! And your singing! :)

Little Tom's signature is different every time. Now we're getting "TOM" with that treble clef symbol, "TDL" with an arch around his face, a check mark on his face with an arch, and "RIP" and an arch around his face. Hmmm.

Matthew Madine signs his name "Matt" with a smiley face. Matthew Jansen has a nice "MJ" that's all swoopy and connects together. Maybe they are helping to solve our problem above.

Well, I can't believe Libera is done with their charity appearance and 6 concerts! They should be home by now. Hope the boys had a safe trip back! I only have 2 weeks until school starts, but some of the boys were saying that they are going on another holiday with their families when they get back. Lucky ducks. :p Hope they have fun and enjoy the rest of their vacation! Thank you, Libera! Hope to see you again soon!

But first, more pictures by my mom and me! Please feel free to copy, but remember to give credit to the photographer or blog. Thanks. :D

Hi, Sammy!

Hi, Alex!

Lilly & Natalie!

So cute!

Awesome!!!

Matthew Jansen

Henry Barrington

Barney Lindsell

Matthew Rangel-Alvares

Matthew Madine

Carlos Rodriguez Villegas

Ralph Skan

Kavana Crossley

Sammy Moriarty

Jakob De Menezes-Wood

Ben Philipp

Tiarnan Branson

Sam Leggett

Freddie Ingles

Dylan Duffy

Eoghan McCarthy

Cassius O'Connell-White

Luke Collins

Jude Collins

Ben Fairman

Michael Ustynovych-Repa

Alex Leggett

Isaac London

Josh Madine

Liam Connery

Orlando Woscholski

Daniel Fontannaz

Tom Delgado-Little

More to come...but I'm sleepy.