How to fill in a day of the school holidays

So, maybe I have misled you with that heading.  

This does not fill in a day of the school holidays.  Nothing fills in a day of the holidays.  

I always used to think it was cute how childcare would have lots of activities set out to keep those little inquisitive minds occupied.  Not so cute now my house looks the same as they move from activity to activity, usually with a trail of destruction behind them.

So, on a cold wet rainy day I decided maybe a kitchen activity would be the go.  I could have just made play dough but thought what the heck, let's throw ourselves into this and make pasta.  

First time of trying the thermomix pasta recipe.  It seemed dry.  I counterchecked against other pasta dough recipes, if it's good enough for The Silver Spoon (the Italian cooking bible), good enough for me.  Perhaps our eggs were small.  Perhaps the speed was wrong. I added another egg and all was good. 

We were impatient, but I think it was left to rest for 15 minutes.  Then the rolling began.  

Team work, motor skills, maths, it was all happening as we rolled, rolled cut and then hung the pasta out to dry.

For two boys who LOVE pasta it was a great activity to see simple ingredients transformed into what you love so much.  Despite what it looked like, it only took 15 minutes to clean up.

There was also some problem solving.  Why is it sticking together? Usually google provided the answers, after some initial pondering.

Then there was the final product, having seen it from beginning to end it was eaten enthusastically.