The Grace Project (our youth group) have gone through some changes.  We started out as a large group including high school kids.  We would play games, sing, and have a teaching time only to be divided into groups based on middle/high school and gender.  I went with the middle school girls.  We would discuss the teaching which was on Mark while doing an activity in a journal. I wanted the girls to really dig into God's word and have it speak truth to them.  I follow a gal on instagram called gypsymama who is inspiring with her journaling.  It isn't fancy and doesn't have a ton of art but she digs in and learns. Then there is the Bible Journaling community on facebook that is very artistic and often draws out elaborate pictures in their Bibles based on the text.  Finally there is someone on Pinterest that started it all for me, Stone Soup.  I really like how simple it is and how she breaks it down chapter by chapter.  So we started doing something like this at the beginning and then there was the "Great Divide" and the high school and middle school were split.  We had our own seperate teaching and game time although the singing was all together.  We didn't have a direction yet with the middle school.  While the high schoolers kept working through Mark, we were sporatic.  They would have lock ins and have progressive dinners.  We didn't and the girls kept pushing for something fun. I understand that but have to say that I have one night for youth group since my other nights are tied up with other things. Well spring break hit and Lydia took charge and set up a sleepover at my house. We set a time for t he girls to show up, I bought supplies and had the boys set up the tent.  The weather held out and we had 13 middle school girls show up and spend the night.  They set up their sleeping bags in the tent, jumped on the trampoline, roasted marshmallows and had s'mores, played a little volleyball, journaled and watched a movie.  They scooted out to the tent around 11:30 and I think that by 12:30 they quieted down.  At 6:30 the next morning they started rolling around down there so I quickly threw on a sweater and started making waffles.  By 10:00 that next morning they had their stuff packed up and were headed home.  My boys including my husband had abandoned the house by 5 pm that Thursday night and had a sleep over of their own.