Misbehaving when we have company over

Dear Jane…

Once again I write to you seeking advice. My husband and I are trudging through your “positive disciplne” book. We’ve recently set up charts and are really trying hard to get the children involved in the problem solving….here’s another quest for you…recently we moved to a new town…my son will be starting school in 3 weeks (jr k). He seems very excited. My other son is 2 1/2. Lately the two are so misbehaving when we have company over or go visiting. ie last night we had friends stop by with short notice and with their two young children. Almost immediately my kids begin showing off, tossing toys, bumping into each other, even into the littlest guy and so twice my husband and once myself pulled my eldest aside and had a quick chat that he would have to stop the acting silly or he was gone to bed ( now after the 2nd and 3rd time I think we were just talking instead of acting) however the 4th time he went to his room and to bed…this lasted all of 5 minutes and he came out sobbing and promising to be good and that lasted 10 minutes..we were very embarrassed as our friends kids were quiet the whole time…we kept on saying “McCulla that’s enough now” McCulla we don’t bump into people” this went on and on and finally our friends left…we were upset after they left and felt that we have the worst behaving kids in the world and do not want to go anywhere…help!!!! also how old do the kids need to be to start having family meetings? Should we be addressing these issues as they come up and have a family meeting if need be everyday??????

Canada!!!!!