[MX2k4] allowing button actions through a movie clip?

Im still pretty new to the flash workflow, and Im not much of a programmer - heres my prob-

im working from the infinite menu tutorial (here), and for the effect to work, the buttons must be combined into a movie clip. good and fine -

the problem is that once all of my buttons are set in a movieclip, all of their properties become buried and it becomes impossible to click on one (although the mouse recognizes the buttons as being such)

how can i still achieve the infinite menu effect but still retain my button properties?

thx for your help in advance :cons: