Irises, Irises Everywhere!

One exciting thing about moving into this house has been the spring.  Since we bought the house in August this is our first spring in our new home.  It all started when we got home from South Carolina and found daffodils all over the front and back yard.  The excitement has escalated as we had some new blossoms springing up several weeks ago...

(Note: All photos taken by Olivia)

What were these funky-looking flowers?!  At first I thought it was some sort of lily, but after a morning spent identifying them online we knew for sure that wasn't the case.  So what are they?

They are bearded irises, to be exact.

There are three petals standing up called "standards" and three petals that swoop down called "falls".  And where is the beard?  This fuzzy thing right here:

Theses are easily the coolest flowers we have ever seen.  Every morning the girls want to go out and count how many blossoms we have.  They're all over the back yard...

...white and yellow/white ones in front of the old shed...

...pure white ones hidden behind the workshop...

...a hoard of lavender ones along the back fence...

...and a few cool two-tone purple and white ones off by themselves.

The girls counted this morning and we have 99 blossoms and another 90 buds that will break out sooner or later.  Pretty cool, eh?