- Every four years, the calendar gets an extra day on February 29.
- While being born on that day might seem rare, some families have more than one child born on a Leap Day.
- Charlene and Lizanne Figueras are sisters who were both born on February 29, four years apart.
- Insider also spoke to twins and triplets born on Leap Days to find out how they celebrate.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more.
While it might seem rare to be born on February 29 – the extra calendar day every four years – some families have more than one child born on Leap Day.
Whether they have triplets, twins, or two different children born four years apart, families with Leap Day babies each celebrate their special day in their own way.
Insider tracked down people born on a Leap Day to ask them how they each mark their birthday, which technically only falls once every four years.
Warren Bullock and his wife, Jane, tried to have children for two years before falling pregnant with triplets.
The former British No. 1 ballroom dancers underwent fertility treatment, and Jane fell pregnant in 1999.
The triplets were born via Cesarean section — the only slot the hospital had available was February 29, 2000.
India Sapphire Grace, Savannah Xara Crystal, and Alicia Scarlet Coral were born on the rare day that occurs only once every 4 years.
They were the first triplets ever to be born on a Leap Day in the United Kingdom.
Still, India Bullock told Insider she doesn't think it's all that special.
"For me, I don't view it as special as everybody else views it as," she said. "I think that's just because I'm used to it, but I think to everybody else, they find it more interesting."
They're not the only triplets born on a Leap Day. Harris, Elizabeth, and Andrew Rowe were born in South Carolina in 2004.
The family usually celebrates the girls' birthdays on February 28, but in recent years, Savannah started celebrating hers on March 1.
She wants "to be a bit different," India said of her sister. "Me and [Alicia] we have it on the 28th."
This year the triplets turn 20 - or 5, if you're counting in Leap Years.
Savannah is also forging a separate path from her siblings, career-wise. She's studying math in college while India and her sister followed their parents' dancing footsteps.
The Bullock family runs the Zig Zag Dance Factory out of their house in West Midlands. They also star in the Netflix show "Baby Ballroom" about coaching kids through the world of competitive ballroom dancing. It's rubbed off on their own children, too.
India (pictured) competes internationally in ballroom dancing while her sister Alicia, who lives half the time in the US, has transitioned into Latin dance.
Lizanne Figueras and her older sister, Charlene, were born on Leap Day four years apart.
Charlene Figueras, from Gibraltar, was born in 1980 and her sister was born on the same day in 1984. In another twist, Charlene had predicted her sister would be born on her birthday.
"I actually remember my 4th birthday which was my first Leap Day birthday," Charlene said, "and I remember my mom was obviously not there because she was giving birth to this one. I remember it vividly. I was crying because 'I want my mom here' and my auntie says, 'No, she's bringing you the best present ever. A sister.' 'No, I don't want a sister. I want my mom here.'"
Growing up, the sisters would always celebrate their birthdays together and they still do.
"For us I suppose, it's extra special because it's something that we celebrate together," Charlene said. "For a long time, we used to share a cake. That's not something a lot of people can say."
These cupcakes were topped with candles that said "7ish" and "8ish" to poke fun at their special birthday.
In 2012, they turned 8 and 7 in Leap Year birthdays. In non-Leap Year birthdays, that's 32 and 28.
"Sometimes it feels like I have a twin, just separated by four years," Lizanne said.
The middle of four children, Charlene said the two share a lot of similarities.
"We're both creative people, very true to the Pisces qualities," she said. "We're both kind of dreamers. We both worked as photographers together for many years. Both of us work well together. We're quite intuitive of people."
In their small town of 34,000 people, they're known as the sisters who were born on Leap Day.
"A lot of people don't want to have kids on the 29th of February because 'Oh no, they're not going to have a birthday,'" Lizanne said.
She said some people have offered to buy her drinks on her birthday out of pity because she won't get another one for four years.
This year, the sisters are holding a celebration for anyone who was born on a Leap Day in the surrounding area.
They plan to gather 10 to 12 people who responded to their social media invite and take a group picture to celebrate this year's Leap Day.
"It does bring people together somehow," Lizanne said.
Kevin and Mike Radzimski, who are twins, were also born on Leap Day.
They were born in Ohio in 1984.
"It's another thing that makes us more memorable for people," Kevin told Insider.
Spending their birthdays together has become harder as they've grown older. Mike still lives in Ohio, while Kevin lives in South Carolina.
Still, the day is special to them. Though he's not a musician like Mike and their older brother, Kevin took bass guitar lessons so he could play a few songs with them one year for their birthday.
Kevin likes how being born on Leap Day makes him a little different from everyone else.
"I like it because for one, people remember your birthday," Kevin said. "Everybody has a birthday, but there's something special, something unique about the 29th. It just differentiates me from other people, gives me something that they can't say they have."
Sometimes being born on Leap Day can have interesting results, such as a driver's license that expires on a day that doesn't exist.
Radzimski's license said it expired on February 29, 2015, which didn't have a leap year.
On his Leap Day birthday, Radzimski always tries to do something big such as visiting Las Vegas. Eight years ago, he visited Las Vegas.
"There is some anxiety when we finally do get a birthday, in regards to not wasting the day," Kevin said. "It feels like we have to do something big, something out of the ordinary, since it is a special day. If not, it feels like a little bit of a letdown, a missed opportunity. Then March 1st comes, and its like, 'OK, four more years before the next one, before we can do it again.'"
- Read more:
- 18 celebrity siblings you had no idea existed
- Firstborn children are more likely to be CEOs, and other things your birth order can predict about your future
- A simple animation by a planetary scientist reveals what would happen without leap years: December would eventually drift into summer
- 18 things every oldest sibling knows to be true