DEAR HELOISE: How do I tell my brother and his wife that their two young boys aren’t invited to my wedding? I’m getting married in a fairly small, formal ceremony on July 4. It’s an evening, candlelit ceremony for adults only, starting around 8 p.m. A reception will follow after the ceremony.

I know that only people whose names appear on the inner envelope are invited, but this has never stopped my brother and his wife from bringing along their two young children. I probably wouldn’t mind it if the boys were well-behaved, but they aren’t! They are 7 and 5, respectively.

Last summer, the oldest boy climbed a tree, then jumped on the roof of my house and refused to come down. We had to call the fire department to get him down. I was furious when my sister-in-law laughed and said it was so “cute”! Please help me here. Should I just tell them as nicely as I can not to bring the boys?

— Ava and Brent M., in North Carolina

Ava and Brent, a formal evening wedding is always an adults-only affair, but some people think that their children should be invited no matter what. Bring up the subject to your brother and his wife, stating that the two of you talked it over and decided that you wanted an adults-only wedding. And really, 8 p.m. is too late for children this young to attend a wedding and a reception afterward.

— Heloise

DEAR HELOISE: The handles of my gardening tools used to look terrible after one season of use in the sun and rain. Finally, a friend of mine told me to spray the wooden handles with a varnish of some kind to make them waterproof — and to never leave them outside to rust in the rain.

— Stephen W., in Eugene, Oregon

DEAR HELOISE: My husband and I decided to move to the country, and we love it out here. I wanted to raise chickens, but I was a novice who didn’t know what to do. A neighbor told me that I could introduce adopted chicks to a hen if I took day-old hatchlings and slipped them under the hen at night when she sleeps. In the morning, both the chicks and hens will have become used to the sound and smell of one another, and the hen will feel like the chicks are hers.

I tried it, and sure enough, it works! My little chicks have new mamas, and the hens take care of their new babies.

— Carmen E., in Portales, New Mexico