What makes a story a story?

This weeks submission to the critique group was another revision of my very first book idea: Mrs. K and her Little Red Wagon.  I wrote it initially as a tribute to my mom after she died almost 7 years ago.  It's still a tribute to her, but I have tried to make it more universal and make her more of a character (although anyone who knew her would say she was quite a character).  I mean, of course, more of a character in the literary sense.  Still, I am struggling with the fact that it isn't really a story in the truest sense of the word.  Oh sure, there is a main character: Mrs. K.  There is a setting: the beautiful lakes of the north woods (Wisconsin though I don't say so).  There is action: boating, tubing and skiing.  There is a beginning where we are introduced to Mrs. K, a long middle where all the action happens and Mrs. K proves repeatedly that she is generous, fun and patient and an end in which the children and Mrs. K recap the days events in their own way.  But it's not so much a story with a real plot and conflict as it is a 'day in the life'.  It's a series of vignettes and could probably be retitled Scenes on a Lake (which would ensure that no one will ever buy it).  So the question is: Is that enough? 

It is, of course, written in rhyme, but if I wrote it in prose it would go like this:  The neighborhood kids ask the bare-footed lady next door to take them out in her boat.  She agrees and they scramble to get ready.  She drives really fast and they love it, except for the no wake zone.  Then they go tubing, which is wild.  Then they go skiing and she is really patient for kids who can't ski very well.  Then she puts the boat back into the hoist and goes inside to play scrabble with her friend, while the kids roast marshmallows and brag about their adventures.  Well, now it's clear as mud.

I think before our meeting our Thursday, I will do a little searching of current titles at B&N with this question in mind.  I seem to remember reading lots of books to Conor when he was little that fit this structure, but I need the reassurance of finding and reading them again now.  

(So much about this publishing process would be easier if my memory wasn't shot to hell!  Kevin Kline played a character named  Otto in A Fish Called Wanda that is oft-quoted at our house.  He'd be given a series of instructions and at some point he'd always say "What was the middle thing again?")