Preston & Steve’s Leap Year Birthday Sing-A-Long with Makin’ Music
Birthdays only come but once a year… unless you are a Leap Year baby, born on February 29th. For these select few, their birthdays appear on the calendar every four years. So, if you ever meet a “Leapling,” make sure you say hello as it’s probably the only opportunity you’ll ever find to meet a 14-year-old with an AARP card.
To celebrate this rare and special occasion, Preston & Steve invited five leaplings into the WMMR studios to throw a party live on the radio. And to assist with the celebration, Makin’ Music stopped by to serenade the old, little tykes with children’s songs, egg shakers, and zig-zaggy drumsticks.
Dan and Jes Hunter of Fluffy En Route, a mobile petting zoo from Mohnton, Pa. The birthday kids got to meet, pet, and learn interesting facts about various animals, including: a Continental Giant Rabbit by the name of Pearl, a Pygmy Nigerian Dwarf Goat named Jamie, and Gilbert the Mini-Juliana Pig, who we convinced to squeal into a microphone.
For the main event, we were granted audience with Fletcher, the majestic Scottish Highland Mini Cow.
Preston & Steve’s 2024 Leap Day birthday celebration ended with a staple of any children’s party – middle aged tots bopping piñatas (and other people) with baseball bats. But this party game doesn’t just come with candy. It comes with booze, property damage, and a can of whoop ass.
If that wasn’t enough, the game of musical chairs that followed made Sunday night football look like an episode of Muppet Babies. Maybe next year we should vet our leaplings for performance enhancing drugs.
Everything That Happened At Preston & Steve's Leap Day Birthday Party 2024
Musical chairs, a piñata, and a petting zoo featuring an awesome Highland Cow. Sounds like a recipe for an awesome kid’s birthday party, but not an adult one, right? Wrong, you hypothetical miserable bastard! That’s exactly what we had today with Preston & Steve’s Leap Day Birthday Party, presented by Live! Casino.
Leap Year is every four years, and there are an estimated five million people who have a Leap Year birthday (also known as Leaplings). Out of those five million, we managed to snag five happy Leaplings and brought them into the studio to celebrate their special day! We met 13-year-old Jen Linberger; Jessica Bell, David Crum, and Corryn Kronnagel, all aged 11, and Sean Smyth, the baby of the group at 9 years old.
Sing-A-Long
The Leaplings were brought into a studio decorated just for them with balloons and streamers galore. They were also serenaded by the members of Makin’ Music, who just so happened to also be celebrating their 30th anniversary. They enthusiastically sang the songs “Hello” and “Dancing Chicken,” while the birthday kids sang, played tiny instruments, and danced along. A joyous time it was, made even more joyous by the fact that there were free hot dogs, chicken wings, and cupcakes in the lounge, courtesy of Upper Darby’s Wilson’s Secret Sauce.
This Place Is A Zoo
Post Bizarre Files, we were taken to the petting zoo. Actually, the petting zoo was brought to us by Dan and Jes Hunter of Fluffy En Route, a mobile petting zoo from Mohnton, Pa. The birthday kids got to meet, pet, and learn interesting facts about various animals, including: a Continental Giant Rabbit by the name of Pearl, a Pygmy Nigerian Dwarf Goat named Jamie, and Gilbert the Mini-Juliana Pig, who we convinced to squeal into a microphone. For the main event, we were granted audience with Fletcher, the majestic Scottish Highland Mini Cow. Fletcher was a gentle giant, weighing 250 lbs and showing the utmost affection to our guests. That affection may serve him well, as Fletcher is rumored to be getting a girlfriend in the spring! In all, our birthday guests loved the petting zoo.
Before we got to our party games, we had a chance to talk to the Leaplings. The birthday kids talked to the gang about trying to figure out when to celebrate their birthdays on non-leap year years, almost being denied entry to bars despite being 21, and how one of them also experienced the statistically improbably event of having their own Leapling. On to the games!
The First Casualty
We started off with a Toy Story themed piñata filled with bottles of booze, and now we understand why piñatas are usually an outdoor thing! The Leaplings swung everywhere except for the piñata, and one of them even hit Casey in the wrist. But three swings later by 11-year-old Jessica, and the piñata broke open!
The Controversy
We moved on to a game of musical chairs, with the added stakes of Cage the Elephant tickets being up for grabs. 90s hip hop group 3rd Bass’s version of “Pop Goes the Weasel” was the song of choice, and the birthday kids soon showed a (harmlessly) vicious side of themselves. Round by round one person was knocked out, until Jessica and Corryn were the last two remaining. There was some controversy because of chair pulling, but Corryn was ultimately declared the winner and the recipient of the Cage the Elephant tickets. Runner up Jessica won a pair of tickets to the Met. There were no hard feelings though, and all the participants got to enjoy Mini Melts, pretty much our version of participation trophies.
We got to the wrap up, but there was still one more surprise for our birthday guests, courtesy of generous Uncle Pierre! The Leapling’s last gift was future tickets to this year’s MMRBQ! Thank you Uncle Pierre!
And that wraps up Preston & Steve’s Leap Day Birthday Party, hopefully the first of many! See all you Leaplings in 2028!
– Boburjon Egamberdiev, The Preston & Steve Show Staff
The Preston & Steve Show has been a cornerstone of the Philly morning radio scene since 1998. Hosts Preston Elliot and Steve Morrison are joined by Casey Boy Foster, Kathy Romano, Nick McIlwain & Marisa Magnatta. Read on for all things rock, Philly, and everything in between.
