A very special Happy Birthday to Waldorf nursery student Riko Suzuki who was born on this day, February 29th. Riko typically celebrates her birthday on February 28th, but since today’s date coincides with the leap year, she was able to celebrate her actual birthday with her friends and classmates.

In the third grade, students in Ms. Bolz gym class celebrated the leap-year day with some fun jumping and leaping exercises. “We had a variety of hopping and leaping contests,” said Ms. Bolz. “Our celebration ended with a spirited game of leap frog.”

Waldorf alumni may remember another leap year birthday – or “leapling” as they are sometimes known. In Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1879 comic operetta The Pirates of Penzance, (which was performed intermittently at the School between the 1960s and the 1990s), Frederic, the pirate apprentice, discovers that he is bound to serve the pirates until his 21st birthday rather than until his 21st year.