-Messenger file photo
Daisy Hernandez, left, then 4, and Takena Shivers, then 5, right, bathed themselves in mud, in their neighborhood on Fourth Avenue North, Fort Dodge. Daisy and her new friends were washing their hands under a water hose. Then Daisy had an idea. “She hadn’t ever even played with dirt before, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, what is she doing?’” said her mother, Lilia Hernandez, as the children coated themselves in mud.