With Halloween creeping up at the end of October, the school holidays are the perfect opportunity to get creative in the kitchen and craft room! Whether the kids love dressing up or simply enjoy hands-on holiday projects, here are five fun, budget-friendly ideas to try at home:

• Monster Cupcake Bake-Off: Bake a simple batch of vanilla or chocolate cupcakes and set up an icing station with bright green, orange, and purple icing. Provide candy eyeballs, lolly sticks, liquorice laces and other "spooky" treats so the kids can design their own silly monster faces.
• DIY Op-Shop Costumes: Skip expensive store-bought costumes and give the kids a small budget and explore our fantastic local op-shops on the Coast. With a little imagination, old sheets, oversized hats, and fabric scraps make brilliant eco-friendly outfits.
• Painted "Creepy" Garden Rocks: Collect smooth, flat pebbles from the garden. Get the kids to use acrylic paints to turn them into little pumpkins, glowing ghosts, or friendly spiders, then you can hide them along your local walking track or street for neighbours to find or organise a treasure hunt for the kids and their friends to find all their own rocks!
• Hanging Bat & Ghost Garlands: Trace simple bat and ghost shapes onto black card or paper plates - get the kids to decorate them and then thread them onto a piece of string or twine to create spooky bunting for their bedroom windows.
• "Witches' Brew" Kitchen Potions: Mix a bit of kitchen science with Halloween fun! Set out bowls of bicarbonate of soda, drops of food colouring, and small cups of vinegar. Let the kids use droppers or teaspoons to create colourful, fizzing cauldrons right in the sink.

No need for bored kids these holidays!