“Thirty days has September, April, June, and November, All the rest have thirty-one, but February’s twenty-eight, The leap year, which comes once in four, gives February one day more.”
A bit of history from infoplease.com: a leap year occurs every four years to help synchronize the calendar year with the solar year, or the length of time it takes to complete the Earth’s orbit around the sun, which is about 365 days and a quarter of a day. The length of the solar year, however, is slightly less than 365¼ days-by about 11 minutes. To compensate for this discrepancy, the leap year is omitted three times every four hundred years.
Here are 29 unique and fun ways to celebrate this once every four years day:
1. BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, Lansing- score the restaurant’s signature dessert — Pizookies — for just $2.29 all day long on February 29.
2. Jump on over to LAUNCH Trampoline Park in Okemos for their Leap Year Special Offer!
3. Play LEAPFROG! This fun childhood game can be for kids AND adults. Count how many leaps you can get or see who can leap the furthest or jump the highest before the leapers get tired 🙂
4. Chipotle is celebrating Leap Day on February 29 with a free guac offer for Chipotle Rewards members who use code EXTRA24 at checkout on the Chipotle app and Chipotle.com
5. Write a letter to yourself, your future self will love you for it! Write down your favorite TV shows, food, music, styles, etc. Seal it up and don’t open it until February 29, 2028! Just don’t forget where you put it 😉
6. Insomnia Cookies is giving customers one free classic cookie with the purchase of any 6- or 12-pack of cookies through March 3. For customers who have leap day birthdays, you’ll get four free classic cookies (a cookie for every birthday year missed), birthday décor, and party hats.
7. Use this bonus day to take a bit of time to organize that drawer or closet that has been bothering you or just needs a bit of TLC! Put on some fun music or a podcast and you’ll be amazed at what you can do in just 29 minutes!
8. Get 29% off your order with a Marco’s Pizza promo code valid through March 3. Order from the website using promo code: LEAP29.
9. Now that you have your Leap Day pizza deal, plan a family movie night and watch LEAP!, an animated children’s movie about an orphan girl who dreams of becoming a ballerina and flees her rural Brittany for Paris.
10. Leap for joy. Take a quick photo of your family all jumping in the air, in strange places for extra laughs! How much will they change the next Leap Year?? We’d love to see your photo, tag us on social media!
11. Make a Leap Year Cocktail! Who knew? Fun fact: the Leap Year cocktail was created by Harry Craddock, one of the most famous bartenders of the 1920s and 1930s. He created the Leap Year cocktail at the Savoy Hotel in London for a Leap Day celebration on February 29, 1928.
12. Dunkin’ wants you to enjoy a medium Cinnamon Vanilla Coffee for just $2 via the Dunkin’ app. Available to Dunkin’ Rewards members. Join Dunkin’ Rewards here.
13. Take a Leap of Faith and play the trust fall game! In this traditional trust-building activity, one child falls backward into the waiting hands of the others. The child who is falling must trust the others to catch him. Have your child stand as close as they can to the person falling Place some pillows or padded gym mat under the children for added safety.
14. Leap Year Family Fun Day at Whimscal Party Gallery in St. Johns. Drop-in crafts and activities starting at just $10.00 per person, crafts suitable for all ages!
15. Make these fun, 4 ingredient Leap Frog Apple snacks from Clean and Scenstible. Cut your apple up into quarters and remove the core. Cut three grapes in half and slice two triangle toes in 4 of the halves. You can use a little cream cheese to stick the arms to the frog and then add the hands and feet. For the eyes, take a couple of mini marshmallows {or you could do a dot of cream cheese} and add a chocolate chip to the middle.
16. Noodles is offering 29% off on orders of $29 or more on, February 29 for Noodles Rewards members. Not a member, join on the the Noodles Rewards page.
17. Get the crayons out and color a Leap Year coloring page from Crayola or Coloringlib.com.
18. Explore the number 29! At home, have kids count off 29 steps and see where it takes them. Outside, walk 29 steps, big or small, how far did you get? Or jump in the car and go 29 miles. Any guesses where you might end up?
19. Sports and the number 29! The Atlanta Braves set the National League record for most runs scored in a game as they scored 29 times against the Miami Marlins on September 9, 2020.
20. Family game night, take 29 minutes (or more!) as a family, and play one of your favorite board or card games!
21. Are you in need of a Passport Photo? If so, you’re in luck! Staples Easy Rewards members can get a FREE passport photo in-store on February 29.
22. Connect with family. Ask grandparents, aunts, uncles or even friends where they were and what they were doing 29 years ago. Was anyone born on Feb. 29 or married in a leap year?
23. On February 29, Hungry Howie’s is offering a large pizza for 29 cents with the purchase of another! A pizza party! Take out orders only.
24. How rare is a Leap Year baby? A unicorn of sorts….1 in 1,461! The chances of being born on Feb. 29 are 1 in 1,461. Approximately 362,900 Americans have a Feb. 29 birthday, according to the Social Security Administration. By comparison, about 1.6 million can say they were born on March 1. Some might find the idea of a Feb. 29 birthday peculiar, even undesirable.
25. Leap Day Family Swim at Goldfish Swim School, Okemos. Pre-register and have a swimmingly good time!
26. Fun facts about 29! 29 is the tenth prime number. And 29 is the atomic number of Copper. A bit of math and chemistry for your day 🙂
27. After the kids are in bed, plan a date night in! Curl up on the couch and watch the Amy Adams rom-com, Leap Year, streaming on Amazon Prime.
28. Read Leap’s Day February 29 for kids or The Big Leap for adults. Find them at one of these local bookstores!
29. Learn about famous people who had February 29th birthdays, see a list of famous Leap Day babies here!
More ideas from GLAMoms:
Fish Fry Fridays
Pizza Places in Greater Lansing
Local events in Greater Lansing
