Dear Amy: Every year, with the help of my husband and six children, I throw myself a birthday party at a local roller rink.

It’s all I want: to party and rollerblade with my family and friends like I’m still young.

We rent out the entire venue and invite many families. We serve a handful of refreshments and play fun music. It’s a blast and I usually look forward to it every year, except this year.

I’m dreading it because one family (neighbors of ours) are just terrible guests. They bring extra people without asking, their four kids come blazing down the middle of the rink and have actually knocked people down before, and last year they took the water bottles from the refreshment table and were throwing them down the stairs to the front entrance, where they would burst open.

The parents never do anything about it and never offer to help clean up the mess their kids leave.

The problem is, they know I have this party every year.

How do I avoid inviting them when I know they are going to ask about it? I feel like my only option is to cancel it for a few years and hope they forget about it.

— Party Pooper

Dear Party Pooper: Yes, you could cancel your celebration and hope that these neighbors forget about it over the course of a few years.

You could also hope that this boisterous family would perhaps join a traveling circus and take their act elsewhere.

Or … you could simply not invite them.