She was born in 1984 in Bryan, Ohio during a howling snowstorm.

"It was a horrible blizzard and my grandfather had to come plow the entire driveway so that my mom and dad could get out to go the hospital," said Pendleton, who teaches at Daniel Island School. "My mom’s parents came from Cleveland and they were one of the last people on the Ohio Turnpike before they closed the whole turnpike down. And they’ve never missed a birthday since, real or fake."

Real or fake?

Oh, there’s another reason no one forgets Pendleton’s birthday.

She’s a "leapling" -- born on Feb. 29. Her birthday, like presidential elections and the Olympics, comes once every four years.

Pendleton will turn 6 on Friday, a fact that puzzles and amuses her fourth-grade students. It also leads to a teaching moment.

"I use my birthday every year when we’re talking about fractions," said Pendleton, a 2006 College of Charleston graduate who taught second grade last year. "Right now I’m 5-¾ years old and the kids are really interested because it’s beyond their comprehension."

Simply put, adding an extra day each four years keeps our calendar properly synced with the solar calendar.

"Basically, each year has 365.25 days," Pendleton said. "So it adds up to a whole extra day on the calendar every four years."

Although the time difference might seem insignificant, the difference between solar and calendar years would be 25 days over a century without leap years, according to Borgna Brunner, author of "Leap Year 101: Why and when we have leap years."

Adding one day to the calendar every four years was originated by ancient Egyptians. This solution was adopted by Romans, too, who officially designated Feb. 29 as leap day.

But wait, there’s more! And if you’re mathematically challenged, grab some Bufferin.

The creators of the 1582 Gregorian calendar chose to omit leap year three times every 400 years. That’s because a solar year’s exact length is 11 minutes, 14 seconds less than 365.25 days. Consequently, adding a leap year every four years actually causes our calendar to exceed the solar calendar. Over time – 128 years, to be exact – our calendar would gain an extra day.

The solution? The calendar creators decided to omit leap years three times every 400 years. They decreed that a century year is not a leap year unless it is evenly divisible by 400.The last time this occurred was in 1900.

"It’s mathematically tricky," said Pendleton. "Although I won’t be around in the year 3000, I wouldn’t have a birthday for eight years!"

In non-leap years, she opts to celebrate her birthday on Feb. 28, which is when her driver’s license expires. And there’s a tiny part of her that feels shortchanged.

"My birthday’s always been a big deal with my family," Pendleton said. "But last year was the first time that it really hit me that I didn’t have a real birthday. The kids in class get real excited about teachers’ birthdays and last year they waited until March 1 to wish me happy birthday and I felt like my birthday was already over."

It will be different this year. She plans to drive with friends to her family’s home in Fort Mill, S.C. Her family moved there when Pendleton was in fourth grade.

"My grandparents and family are coming from Ohio and this year my birthday’s on a Friday, which will be fun," Pendleton said. "People say to me, ‘Gosh, that must stink not to have birthday.’ But my birthday’s always been a big deal in my family. We’d celebrate it the whole week. And when it falls on leap day, I get phone calls, letters and cards. People remember it when it only happens every four years and it does feel special. After all, there have only been six times in my life that I’ve woken up and said, ‘This is my birthday!’"