Best friends share leap year birthday
It’s the year of the leapers and school besties Toby Thompson and Violet Bryant are celebrating turning eight on their second official birthday.
The dynamic duo were instantly friends on their first day at Mt Biggs School in Feilding but little did they know their paths had crossed before - on February 29 2016, tobeexact.
Anna Bryant was already scheduled to have Violet on February 29 but was “bumped out” of the hospital ward for Fiona Thompson to have Toby as an emergency caesarean.
A few years later both husbands met at the Feilding Tennis Club when they made the connection. “School time came and we realised it was our kids who were hours apart of being born, living down the same little road, going to the same country school.
“It was a bit random. The men recognised each other and now we've all become really good friends,” Anna said.
The pair have been celebrating their birthdays together ever since.
The likelihood of being born on any day of the year is 1 out of 365, and the odds of being born on February 29 are 1 in 1461 days, or 0.068%. Violet and Toby beat the odds.
In New Zealand, for any legal purposes, a person born on February 29 is usually deemed to have their birthday on February 28 in non-leap years.
Violet and Toby choose their birthday each year depending on what day is “most convenient” for both families with work and after-school sport.
Arguably the most important tradition for Toby and Violet this year is snagging the “special couch” in the classroom on your birthday with a buddy of your choice. Without any hesitation, they said they had chosen each other.
Both mums joked they were setting aside funds for the wedding and in a nod to Leap Year traditions, suggested that Violet may be the one to pop the question.